Cameron Hicks: The whole story

I am glad to welcome a guest who has accomplished more in his life than most of us can imagine. Cameron Hicks, the son of a former Team USA member, was instilled with a relentless drive for perfection from a young age. This upbringing set the stage for a life characterized by determination and resilience, where quitting was never an option. His story is truly remarkable, filled with diverse experiences and incredible achievements.

Cameron's journey is nothing short of extraordinary. He has excelled in multiple fields, proving himself as a motocross racer, golfer, sporting clays shooter, and, remarkably, a Green Beret. Each of these demands a unique set of skills and an unwavering commitment to excellence, and Cameron has not only met but exceeded these challenges. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks for listening and remember to visit us online
at ShotgunSportsUSAcom like uson a guy that has done a lot in

(00:56):
his life and probablyexperienced more than most of us
can imagine.
Growing up the son of a formerTeam USA member where perfection
was the only answer, he was setat an early age to never quit
at anything.
His story is quite amazing,what he's done and what he's
been through.
Please welcome to the show amotocross racer, a golfer, a

(01:17):
duck hunting machine, a shooterand a Green Beret Cameron Hicks.
Beret cameron hicks, I don'tknow what to call you anymore.

(01:38):
I call you cameron or cameither one.
I mean, you know, whatever youwant, I can just call you
whatever, yeah yeah, whateveryou want, hey you know we did a
podcast I don't know four orfive, three, I don't know how
many years ago it was and uh, Ihad to take it down.
I was asked to take it downpolitely and uh, now we're
finally getting to do one that Ican leave up, I think yeah, I

(01:59):
know, hopefully this one will.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Uh, we'll be able to stay up.
That'd'd be pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so what are you doing?
Where are you at?
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
I'm in a hotel room in Madison, Wisconsin, watching
Trump get hammered on the TV.
It's kind of sad.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh, you're talking about convicted from all the
stuff that he did.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, 34 counts.
They didn't even cut him anyslack.
Yeah, that's kind of a bad deal.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
He even fixed his hair.
He even fixed his hair.
Huh, I said, he even fixed hishair.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, I mean he looked good and hats off to him
for sticking it out like that,but I mean that's kind of a bad
deal for the whole country, doyou?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
follow this stuff Politics.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
A little bit.
Not the point I'm at in my liferight now.
I'm just, uh, I've I've totallyaccepted the fact that you know
there's not much that me oranybody else stretching about it
can do.
Um, just kind of, you know, sitback and watch the world end
and kick your feet up.

(03:10):
You know, take care of yourfamily and do everything you can
on your end, but there'snothing you can do to change
some of this stuff happening.
I mean you know you look atVenezuela and what happened in
Venezuela.
They didn't think it couldhappen.
And then six months later youknow you look at Venezuela and
what happened in Venezuela.
They didn't think it couldhappen.
And then six months later youknow they're eating their pets
and shit.
I mean you know it's a bad deal.

(03:31):
I'm kind of a I probably sounda little bit out there talking
about it, but you know I'm kindof on the train that we live a
very spoiled lifestyle.
You know you just look at whatyou're doing right now.
I mean I'm in Wisconsinshooting, doing what I want to

(03:53):
do in a rental car.
I flew up here, didn't have toask anyone permission.
That's not normal, you know.
So I think we take for granted,it takes about three days.
Three days and all this can begone.
Uh, so three days.
Hopefully that doesn't happen.
But this, this, this is.

(04:14):
It's just sad to watch.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
What's three days mean?
It takes that long to.
What's that mean?
Oh, three days, I meansomething could be over with
quickly.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
That's plenty of time .

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Nice.
I guess we know that now.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, that's plenty of time.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I mean, it's you know so, anyway, what you've been
doing lately?
I've seen all you got anInstagram page.
It's gone, haywire you know,you've.
You got cool hunting videos outwith a shot cam and what.
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (04:45):
I don't know, man.
Uh, it's like a, it's likefunded homelessness, kind of um,
I'm having a great time, I'mhaving an absolute blast, and I
didn't.
This wasn't really how.
I planned it going.
This isn't what I planned ondoing when I got out of the army
, um, but it just kind ofhappened.

(05:05):
I was pretty firm, pretty firmset that I was going to move to
Argentina and just go be a birdboy in Argentina until I got
tired of it.
I was talked out of that.
I'm still not sold that that'snot going to happen eventually.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Why would you want to do that?
I can understand.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
You want to shoot them, but you, you want to be
the guy that picks them up loadsof shotguns.
I like bird murder, man, I'm a,I'm a.
I like killing ducks.
I like watching ducks beingkilled.
I like using my dogs to go getthe ducks.
That we, I mean I, I just, Idon't know man, I just thought
it'd be cool.
Yeah, be a good, a good reset.
I mean, really, that's kind ofwhat I wanted was a reset.
So, you know, I, I settled forwhat was supposed to be a 10 day

(05:53):
long hunting trip to Nebraskawith my cousin turned into 45
days.
Um basically left on December1st and got back February 2nd,
hunted seven States, 107 States.
Um drove, I think, close to7,000 miles.
I mean, it was, it was fine,that was, that was the best
thing that I ever could havedone for myself at the perfect

(06:16):
time.
Um, and it was, it was, it wasawesome.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
So what all?
Where?
Where did you go?

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Well, we started and we started it.
I can't even remember now.
We started in Nebraska.
From Nebraska we went toArkansas for the first time.
I went to Arkansas, I thinkfour, four times total.
Um.
From there I went to Texas, Idon't know, texas, to Kentucky,
to Tennessee, to Oklahoma, toback to Arkansas, to North

(06:53):
Carolina.
Yeah, I honestly don't evenknow.
I'd have to sit down forprobably an hour to come at it
out.
I don't even remember.
I just know we killed a lot ofbirds and the only reason that I
did the shot cam thing isbecause I had bought that thing
prior, um, mainly just to figureout why I was sucking at

(07:14):
shooting so bad.
I was kind of kind of desperateat that point.
I guess that it's like thatline from that uh, the movie tin
cup paraphernalia for lost anddesperate souls and I was tired
of sucking.
So I had that shot camera and Ijust so happened to grab that
thing as I was walking out thedoor on that hunt and threw it

(07:35):
on.
And yeah, it was an experiencefor sure.
And then having Presley, my dog,know I had, I had been training
her for that 10 day longhunting trip for a year.
I'd always wanted a dog at thatlevel, you know, and after
after tilly died, I got her andjust started working her from

(07:57):
eight weeks old and it's been.
It was super cool to see herprogression.
Yeah, the hunting season Notnot only what I learned and not
how many ducks we killed, buthow much that little dog picked
up on it it's, it's, it's.
There's a lot more to duck hunt.
Not this is my first yearlearning that there's a lot more
to duck hunting than justactually killing ducks.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, it's pretty interesting to me that that
little dog you've got, which isa Boykin right.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, boykin.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Spaniel the stuff she can do and pick up.
I mean geese.
Oh, that's unreal that dog'sdragging geese all over the
place.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
The dog has no quit.
I line that dog up and I sendher and I say back that dog is
going to run in a straight linewithout looking back at me until
she hears a whistle or she dies.
I mean that dog's only purposein life is to go get stuff and
bring it back to me.
So that's been cool.
That's been cool because youknow, everybody knew Tilly and

(08:59):
Tilly was great.
Tilly was the best dog.
You know I'll never top thatwith that dog, but her job is to
be my friend, presley's job.
Presley's a weapon.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, well, you talked about this not too long
ago, that Tilly, which was agolden retriever.
She wasn't made to hunt, shewas made just to be a companion.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, she had no.
When you throw something out infront of her, she gets mad that
you just threw it and she'swaiting.
She's like are you going to goget that?
You know why are you stillstanding there?

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Why'd you throw that over there, which was fine?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
I mean she, that dog was the perfect dog for me at
that point in my life.
You know that was my dad's dogand and and all the stuff that I
went through with that dog.
So that you know that's not me,not me saying I would never
want a dog like that again.
But I told myself with PresleyI was like this dog.
I want to show up to the boatramp with this tiny little brown

(09:58):
dog that everybody's like.
Why do you bring his?
Why do you bring his porchpoodle with him and then just
run laughs around him.
And she did that quite a bitthis year.
She's had a fair share of thatso far.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, a dog's pretty impressive, I mean it's.
You know, she really don't payattention to anybody, but you,
you know, she's always lookingat you.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, you know it's been a learning experience for
me too, because it's the firsttime I've really trained a dog
to that, to that level, I mean,we've probably at least got a
thousand hours.
Um, we went, we played fetchbefore I ever took her in my
house.
So you know, I started her fromeight weeks old to the day.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
So Was there a reason that you got a Boykin over a
traditional dog, I guess?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
No, it was a totally last minute thing.
I was looking for goldens andMadison Sharp's parents got a
Boykin and her dad was at ashoot and he was showing me
pictures of it.
I'm like man, what kind of dogis that?
And did about five minutesworth of googling and had her
call the breeder and save me thelast one, really.

(11:16):
So it was typical cameron forasking about a five minute
decision yeah, well, it workedout for you.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, sometimes it don't work out for you.
This time it did.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, yeah, most of the time it doesn't work out.
Uh, this time, yeah, it workedout pretty good.
I mean, as soon as I read thatthey they didn't have near the
health issues that golden's didand they weren't subject to a
lot of the stuff that you know,basically the stuff that killed
Tilly and you know all themedical bills and all that stuff

(11:47):
.
I didn't want to go throughthat again with the dogs.
So as soon as I read that youknow they weren't really going
to get any of that, I was likeyep, I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
So, uh, if anyone wants to listen to this, wants
to go watch or see what we'retalking about.
Cameron's got a pretty goodInstagram and some of those
videos I was looking the otherday some of those videos got
over a million views.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, I didn't again had no plan on doing that, and
you know, I know the typicalsocial media thing is like, well
, that's not real life andthat's not what they're doing.
That is exactly what I'm doingevery day and I'm perfectly okay
with accepting that.
I'm reliving my mid-20s rightnow doing whatever I want to do

(12:34):
and I'm having a blast doing it,and it just kind of took off.
Yeah, it just people like birdmurder, I guess I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
How old are you now?

Speaker 3 (12:45):
29.
How old are you now?
Uh, 29.
Uh, getting old, 29.
Yeah, yep, I tried to cram itall.
I'm trying to cram as much as Ican in before 30.
Um, which is cool, Cause Ididn't think I was going to live
till 30.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
So why we're doing pretty good.
You didn't think he's going tolive till 30.
So why we're doing pretty good.
You didn't think he's going tolive till 30.
Dang Some people say I'm notgoing to live to 65 or 70 or 80
or whatever you said 30.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, I like tosend it, Uh, just yeah, let's
talk about a little bit abouthow you got to where you are.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know how?
How are you now enjoying lifeoutside the army?
Now that you're outside thearmy, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm having
a absolute blast.
I mean I'm I'm obviously gladthat you know every, every,
every good thing, every badthing.
I'm kind of a kind of on thattrain of it all happens for a
reason and I'm sitting in ahotel in wisconsin doing the
thing I like to do more thananything, and you know I have

(13:51):
absolutely nothing to complainabout where I'm at.
You know, it took me, took me alittle bit to figure that out,
for sure.
I mean, my, my, my mid-20s wasa, was a roller coaster ride,
for sure, but I had an awesometime.
I mean, I've met some of thebest people and some of the

(14:15):
worst people and I've traveledall over the world and you know,
I got to do everything that Iwanted to do in that phase of my
life.
I got to do everything that Iwanted to do in that phase of my
life and right now, all I'mtrying to do is just reset and I
don't know what the next phaseof my life is going to look like
, but the current one isn't sobad.

(14:36):
So I'm probably going to keepdoing that until somebody tells
me otherwise.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean I joinedthe army right out of high
school.
But Um, but yeah, I mean Ijoined the army right out of
high school, but so so, so yougraduated when 18 years old, 17,
18 years old, yeah yeah, Ijoined when I was 17.

(14:56):
Um, then I left when I was 18.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Okay, so you, that's all.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
you really really I mean 2012, really, um, I think,
yeah, 2012, and that you know, II grew up.
I grew up as a golfer, um, Igrew up racing dirt bikes.
I grew up shooting a little bit, but not just, you know, like
we talked about last time.
I mean, there, you know, I shota little bit with my dad here

(15:22):
and there, but I just never hadany interest in it and looking
back, I mean that's you know, Itry to live my life with zero
regrets.
Sometimes that, you know,that's good and bad, but one
that I'm always going to have isjust not pursuing this.
When my dad was around buthindsight's, 2020, I probably

(15:46):
wouldn't be sitting here at theregional, uh, if I had.
So, you know, I my thing waswas racing their bikes.
After, after he got done withwhat he wanted to do shooting
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Well, let's stop right there for a second.
Your dad some people don't knowthis, but your dad was on team
USA a long time ago, Yep, soexplain that before we get into
the.
You know you racing and golfingand all that stuff, Uh, he, he
shot a Beretta automatic I thinkeverybody did back then, from
what I can remember you tellingme, and he made Team USA and I

(16:19):
don't know if it was fee task orwhatever it was, but that's
pretty interesting to me.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yep, yep, yep, he was , uh, he started, he started
shooting in 95.
Um, and then I think the firsttime he made the team, the first
time he made the team, it gotcanceled because of nine 11.
So then he made the team again,the fee test team, and it was,
uh, it was him, andy W Wendelland Dan, and yeah, and then his

(16:50):
agreement with my mom was youknow, we're going to be broke
until I do what I want to dowith this and then I'll quit and
move on with life.
And that's what he did.
His goal was exactly what hedid make Team USA.
They won the gold medal and um,and that was the end.
He never I don't think he evershot another registered target

(17:14):
again.
So you know, then it kind oftransitioned to.
You know, I'm, I'm eight at thetime, seven, seven, eight years
old, something like that.
So that's right around the timehe got me into racing, dirt
bikes and golf.
I was already playing golf.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
I did not.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
I raced GNCCs up until I was 18.
I won all kinds of stuff.
I was actually good at that.
Dirt bikes Yep, I grew up withAaron Plessinger and aaron
plessinger were in the same.
I don't for the people whofollow, you know motocross and

(17:51):
supercross nowadays, but likecaleb russell, stew baylor and
the gncc side, and then likeaaron plessinger and and uh,
tomac was a little bit olderthan us, but like that was the
generation I grew up racing withall them dudes and most of them
started in g or a lot of themstarted in the gncc side, which
is the cross-country stuff side,and um you know.

(18:12):
So, yeah, yeah, it was cool.
It was cool to grow up withthose guys.
Yeah, I was.
I was pretty close with with alot of those guys growing up
racing.
I mean, we traveled everywhere,just like this Same thing.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
You win anything.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah, yeah, I want a bunch of stuff.
I want to uh, to GNCC titles.
I want a bunch of like Virginia.
It kind of works like NASCAR,like it's a season long points
race, um, and then you knoweverything in between.
Yeah, I want a lot of stuff.
Um, I had I want a lot of stuff.
Um, I had I had a good timewith that.

(18:46):
I had a good time with that,but um, surprised you don't
bring that up more.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I mean, I've talked to you a bunch and I've I don't
know that I ever knew that aboutyou.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
It's a, it's a weird um, um.
When my dad died, you know, Idon't I don't know if it's some
kind of I don't know if it wassome kind of stress response or
or what, but kind of the reasonI ended up in shooting was
because when he died I kind ofjust my mind just kind of X'd
all that out.

(19:15):
I didn't think about it foryears, um, I really didn't think
about it until I was goingthrough all the trophies and
stuff, when I was going throughhis house later on, years later,
and you know, my mind just kindof reverted back to shooting.
Like I guess all my reallyreally good, like deep-rooted

(19:35):
memories with him were shooting,which is probably some type a
problem, because you know hestopped shooting when I was nine
.
But that's just kind of what Ilatched on, that's just kind of
what I used to to get throughall that Um, and that's really
the only reason I startedshooting that and he had all had

(19:56):
a barn full of ammo and it wasjust going bad, so somebody
needed to shoot it.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, I remember you telling me that you just
shooting and shooting andshooting and, yeah, burning
through 55 gallon drums full ofreloads and I still had a bunch
of them.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
But I had a had a controlled burn get out of
control at my uh at my farm lastyear year before burnt down one
of my barns and it had a bunchof 55 gallon drums for my dad's
old reloads oh, I bet thatwasn't nice no, no, they weren't
happy about that, so golf yep,you, you do you still play golf?

Speaker 2 (20:33):
or did you play golf?
How does?

Speaker 3 (20:36):
I mean I don't see you playing golf at all yeah, so
I I had a golf club.
I mean I'm pretty sure my dadwas, uh, taking notes from tiger
wood's dad.
I mean I had a golf club in myhand when I was in diapers and I
was always really good.
My dad, from the time I wasborn until the time he died, was

(20:56):
a scratch golfer the whole waythrough.
My dad was very, very good atgolf.
He, he did a lot of business onthe golf course with what he
did and, um, you know that wasalways his thing.
So I was always real big intogolf.
I didn't really start taking itseriously until sometime,
probably late middle school ish,and I think I just tried out

(21:17):
for the golf team because theymissed the most days of school,
because when you go to a matchyou're gone for the whole day.
So I didn't really startplaying golf hard until high
school.
But I was very successful withthat and had a great time with
that.
But then, you know, joined theArmy and then you know my back
injury and all that stuff and Igot to be real careful.

(21:41):
One now, not to throw my backout, but two is because I have a
very addictive personalitycompetitive problem, I guess and
I was at a Topgolf with Corey afew weeks ago and I knocked,
stroked one pretty good and thenhit another one pretty good and

(22:02):
then I was like I gotta putthis down because this is, this
is fun and yeah you'll end upbuying a set of clubs and I know
and I just keep having to tellmyself you're too old to be any
good, like you there's.
It's not realistic that I wouldever go play on the pga tour.
So in my mind it's notrealistic that I would ever go

(22:23):
play on the PGA tour.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
So in my mind it's not worth starting at all to me,
yeah.
So if you pick up a golf club,your your goal is going to be to
go play on the PGA tour.
It's not just going to be toplay in a local tournament.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah pretty much and at this point in my life of the
back injury and I'm and theseyou know these dudes, these you
know these do's and plans, sincethey were in diapers, uh, it's
not realistic and I willcompletely run my entire life
into the ground trying to makeit realistic.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
And it's just not so.
Is that something you, I guessgrowing up that was kind of bred
into you to to never quit, Iguess?

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Uh, it's, um, I'm probably an exact I'm going to,
I'm, I'm very, very much so likemy dad in a lot of ways.
Um, you know, when it comes toto addictive personalities, I
had a shrink one time tell methat she thought I was slightly
autistic and I was like what thehell did you just call me?

(23:19):
I mean, I was pissed, I thoughtshe had just thrown an insult.
I was about to flip the tableover on her.
It's just very compulsive.
I mean it takes, you know, to.
There's a lot of compulsivepeople in our sport.
Absolutely, I mean you have tobe compulsive to spend this much
money and time on somethingthat makes you no money and

(23:45):
takes up a lot of your time.
So I think it was just more ofthat.
it's just you know once you yeahonce you get an interest in
something, it's like, okay, Iwant to beat that, I want to
beat that and then do somethingelse.
And I've definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely been
bad about that.
Uh, thus far, I mean I did itwith skydiving, that you know,

(24:08):
fishing, bow fishing I've beeninto all kinds of stuff.
Um, yeah, shooting.
Obviously shooting went wayfarther um than all of that, but
it's just, it's more of a.
I think it's more as I'vegotten older and kind of
understand myself a little bitbetter.
It's just more of a, acompulsive, I guess.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I don't, I don't you just want to be good at
everything you do.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Maybe it is autism, I have no idea.
If it is, it can't be that bad.
It it's not.
You know, I'm, I'm fine.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
I feel fine.
I think yeah, yeah, I mean, I'min a lot of pain.
What did you do to hurt yourback?
I was Afghanistan in 2015 iswhen it started and then again
continuing on with thatcompulsive behavior of I want to
go to Sapper school, I want togo to airborne school, I want to

(25:03):
be a green beret, I want tojump out of planes, I want to do
this, I want to carry heavystuff, and just absolutely zero
thought of the consequences ofyou know the, the after effects
of what a lifestyle like thatdoes to your body.
I mean not, you know, I havenothing to complain about.
I'm not dead and I'm notmissing any arms and limbs, um,

(25:26):
it just, you know, going likethat all the time just beats up
your body.
I mean, I got like half of oneknee left, um, but I've had a
great time, so I'm not, I'm not,I'm not complaining about it.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Don't, don't you have to be that way to do kind of
what you did in army, though Imean you have to be one of those
.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
I'm going to just go all the way.
Yeah, I mean for the, for theoverwhelming majority of it, you
have to be able to move quickly, uh, run fast and have a high
pain tolerance.
If you, if you got that down,if you get a high pain tolerance

(26:06):
and you know you can just suckit up and just kind of do it, um
, you can get through just aboutthe majority of the, the
conventional stuff.
You start getting into some ofthe other stuff and you got to
think a little bit more, um, butstill have a high pain
tolerance, um, when your dadpassed.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
You know you gotta.
You gotta deal with his estate,your active duty, your young I
mean.
How do you, how do you juggleall that?

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Not very good.
Uh, you know, uh there's.
It was a learning experience.
I mean, I had a very good,friendly friend uh helping me
out.
I had a lot of, a lot of verygood people um helping me out
through that.
But I lived three hours away.
I mean, I was, I was drivingall the way up to Virginia two,
three nights a week for twoyears, um, and then being back

(26:59):
at PT at six six 30 the nextmorning.
So, um, that's a lot forsomebody that young to have to
do?

Speaker 2 (27:08):
you know.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah and uh.
You know I I had to.
Just I had to grow up quick.
I mean my my early twenties,all the way up to 21 in the army
, were a racket.
That is the most fun.
It sucks at the time, uh, andyou probably couldn't convince
anybody who's in that situationright now that they're going to
look back and say that was fun,but it is the most fun I've ever

(27:31):
had in my life.
I mean being 19 going toAfghanistan and you know, just
it's, it's a lot, a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
All right.
How many times you said youwere in Afghanistan?
I mean, how long do you staythere, how many times do you go
back, or how do you do that?

Speaker 3 (27:51):
I was there twice, basically a nine-month
deployment with a couple monthsanother couple-month trip.
Nine months.
That's short man.
When they were going into Iraq,all the OG gangsters from the
GWAT era, those were 18-monthdeployments.

(28:13):
Wow Then, looking back fartherthan that World War II, you just
went, you came back when thewar was over, when the boat
showed back up, just went andyou came back when the when the
war's over.
You know when, the when theboat showed back up, yeah, um,
so you know nine months.
Looking back at it, it doesn'tseem.
It seems like I can onlyremember about a week's worth of

(28:33):
it.
But um no, it flies by earlytwenties.
For, for, for a young single,you know, 18 year old, is is an
army.
It's, it's, it's fun, it's,it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
What's what's one of the crate?
What's like the funniest story,like a funny story?
What?
What's something funny that'shappened to you like that?

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Deployed.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
There's gotta be something funny, like you had to
eat something that made yousick or you had to see some guy
out there with a goat orsomething I mean something
deployed yeah deployed.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
I got dysentery from eating goats and uh was so
dehydrated I didn't even knowwhat dysentery was uh at the
time.
I do now and, um, I was sodehydrated that I started I was
hallucinating and got up to goto the bathroom and uh walked

(29:34):
into a nail sticking out of theside of our, our hut.
So I got a big old scar on myforehead from sticking a nail
basically straight into my skullwhile I had dysentery.
And I finished and I don't knowif that's funny.
It's funny now looking back.
It wasn't funny at the time.
Um, I don't know, there's somany, there's too many to count.

(29:56):
I mean, you know whether uh oh,I'm, sure I mean.
I'll think the one uh, yeah, Imean that's yeah, Most of them
probably would not beappropriate for for uh, for the
show, yeah, For for mostaudiences, for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
So, being in, being in the army and doing what
you're doing, you have to.
Like we talked earlier, youhave to have you have to be a
certain type of person.
To do that, and and I I wouldimagine the mental aspect of it
you would have to have a strongmental.
Strong mental health, I wouldassume, and a strong mental game
, so to speak.
You know you can't be weakminded, I'm sure so.

(30:39):
Does all that lead, you know,after you're out of the army?
Does all that when you're intoshooting, does that help you at
all?
Does that do you ever think?
All right, well, this ain'tnothing.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
And and getting to be away from all that and and now
that I've been out, no stressand just focusing on me and,

(31:12):
like you know, I'm this year hasbeen it really, since I got out
it's been hard, I've beenselfish, I mean it's it's, I am
focusing on me.
You know, I've been a lot moreparticular about who I let in my
life and and who I'm around andwho I surround myself with,
because, you know, I, I was,yeah, that my mid-20s was a

(31:36):
nightmare.
I mean, it was not, and I had alot of fun, I did a lot of cool
stuff and I was still.
You know, I kind of attributethat to, I guess, the way my dad
rubbed off on me a little bitof just like, all right, gotta,
gotta keep doing it, gotta keepdoing something.
So, so that, um, you know thatkept me going and I got my, I

(31:57):
passed selection, I think I.
I think I got selected a yearafter dad died and I think I
graduated the q course, likethat same day, two years later,
or something like that.
Um, q course is what like, uh,is that?
It's the, the, the, this, it'slike college for green berets,

(32:18):
it's a special forcesqualification course.
So it's just, you know, okay,two years of you, learn a
language, you learn all kinds ofstuff.
Yeah, you, you learn a language.
Um, I learned french.
We talked about that last time.
Um, takes a really long time tobe a green beret and uh, sorry,

(32:40):
I'm just sitting here trying tothink of timelines.
So, yeah, I mean my, my mid-20s.
I never, really, I never,stopped to sit down to deal with
, uh, what happened with my dadand the ramifications of bad
decisions not bad decisions,just the wrong decisions uh,
after that.
So I was just a pinball, I meanit, you know, did a lot of cool

(33:02):
stuff, but I don't really thinkthat, um, I don't really think
I ever translated any of themental stuff.
Well, until long after I wasout, um, yeah, because at the
time, I mean at the time whenyou're, when you're, when you're

(33:23):
getting after it, like thatit's's just, it's just go, go,
go, go, go, go go, you don'thave time to stop, you can't
stop Um.
But, like I said, I mean my midtwenties.
I was a wrecking ball, um, Istruggled bad, bad, bad, bad
with suicide.
You know, I, I think, and Idon't have any problem talking
about that now.
You know, I'm sure some peopleare like well, I probably

(33:51):
shouldn't have said that outloud, but you know, I don't have
any problem talking about itnow because I would love to be
able to help people.
You know what I'm saying.
If somebody hears that and ithelps them, I've just gotten
comfortable with it.
With it, I know where I'm atnow and I know I'm good now.
But man, when you're on thatride, that's that, that's uh,
that's a tough way to live and Istruggled with that bad for a

(34:14):
long time.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
You know, um yeah just I mean, I don't know why no
rhyme or reason.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
I mean I, you know I was, I was healthy and had a
great career and there, you know, didn't really have that many
problems.
But at the same time my, my dad, was rich and he was good at a
lot of stuff yeah, you know so,and it didn't do him any good,
um, so I'm very, very fortunate,very thankful I able to.
I caught that earlier in life,um, but I struggled hard with

(34:46):
that man.
I mean it was when it came.
I mean you remember, I mean youwere my friend.
Then you know you remember allthat.
Feel free to give your take ofit and just don't tell them
everything, but you know, uh, Imean, I you know, and I kind of
understood it and I think that'sthat's you know.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
I've known you.
I don't know how long I'veknown you now, but I've known
you a long time and I I kind ofunderstood you know what I'm
saying.
Like I I've, I've tried to callyou.
I can remember trying to callyou before and like where'd
Cameron go?
You know, is he?
He's not answering the phone,you know.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
And I, you know, and I couldn't figure out why
everybody was asking me, uh, ifI was okay.
I was like what do you thinkI'm fine?
Yeah, um, but you know it, itthat I struggled.
I struggled hard with that, um,for a long time.
And then, you know, and then mynext compulsive adventure was

(35:41):
skydiving, which couldn't havehappened at a worse time,
because it's pretty easy to diedoing that historically full

(36:07):
bore into that and doing stuffthat you don't even think about
trying and no one will eventeach you until you've got 2000
jumps.
I was trying stupid stuff likethat at 150 when it came to, you
know, canopy flying.
I was flying a canopy.
That was way too small.
Yeah, I had a lot of fun, yeah,but I should probably be in a
wheelchair.
All, yeah, I had a lot of fun,yeah, but I should probably be
in a wheelchair.
I don't know how I'm not in awheelchair, um, but uh, one day

(36:29):
I just woke up and I was justlike I'm not gonna get.
I'm scared for some reason.
I don't.
I've never felt this before.
It feels wrong, but I'm notgonna go jump today.
And then the next day I woke upand I was like, no, I'm not
gonna go jump today either.
And the next thing, you know,I've been six months and I was
like ain't no, I'm not going togo jump today either.
And the next thing, you know,I've been six months and I was
like ain't no way I'm doing thatagain.
Yeah, and it was weird.
It was probably the mostprofound immediate change I've

(36:50):
ever experienced in my life.
It's just one day.
I was just like nope.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
So how many times do you think you jumped out of an
airplane for fun?
I know you kept up with that.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
With free fall and all the civilian stuff I did, I
don't know A few hundred.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, I've always said, well, I'd jump out of a
perfectly good airplane, I'djust have to ride and watch.
I can't do that, I'd free fallway too fast.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
I think everybody should do it one time in their
life.
I think got a guy diving donein a the right way, the right
progression.
Basically, I approached thatwith the same mentality that I
approached shooting is if okay,this lady's telling me I'm in C
class, I don't want to be in Cclass, I want to be in
masterclass.
With me in masterclass.
Well, want to be in c class, Iwant to be in master class, put

(37:44):
me in master class.
Well, doing that type ofprogression in skydiving is just
, you know how, how deep of ahole are you going to make in
the ground?
You know you're, you're goingto die, you're going to get hurt
.
Um, yeah, I had a lot of fun,but at the same time I was
extremely suicidal.
And who cares?
You know, I was probably gonnado it anyways, you know.

(38:07):
So that's why I was flying likethat, that's why I was jumping
so much, not to not to killmyself, it's just.
I had no fear.
No fear when your backup planis is essentially, you know,
killing yourself, right, asterrible as that sounds.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
It stops being scary.
I would just assume that ifyou're at that point, who really
cares anyway.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
You know what I mean Exactly.
It's not going to phase me todrive 100 miles an hour on the
way to work.
Little stuff like that.
I'm very fortunate, you know.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, but you got the help you needed.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Yeah, yeah, I spent a good bit of time, the last part
of my career, in a programcalled Intrepid Spirit, which is
a PBI clinic, like a brainhealth thing MRIs of your brain
and found out I had bad sleepapnea, got you on a CPAP I did a

(39:15):
bunch of work with.
I was having real bad migraines.
They couldn't figure out whatwas causing them, so I did a
bunch of work with a neurooptometrist, which is like I had
.
There were times where I hadcolo, dr colo and my neuro
optometrist on the phonetogether trying to figure out

(39:35):
why I couldn't keep my eye on abird at 40 yards and I was
getting headaches after a shot,you know.
So that was pretty cool, um,and then, obviously, you know
it's, it's full spectrum and Igot help from my back.
Um, you know, I was able totalk to people.
It's a.
It's a fantastic, fantastic,fantastic program.
Um, well, good.

(39:57):
So yeah, that's kinda.
That's kinda where I where Iended up.
Um, just I knew I was gettingout and I was med boarding.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
So do you consider yourself retired?
I mean, what do you consideryourself?

Speaker 3 (40:13):
Funded homeless.
Funded homelessness.
No, I'm not retired because Ididn't do 20 years.
I mean, there's medicalretirement.
So I guess essentially that'swhat it is, medical retirement,
and that's how I got out.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
So yeah, so now, you're shooting all this out,
whether if it's flying clays orflying birds or whatever it is.
I remember I remember you usedto talk a lot about bear hunting
and stuff like that, up andfrom where you're from.
What are you still doing thatstuff?

Speaker 3 (40:40):
yeah, I mean I've still got a ton of bear.
I mean I'm really all I'm doingnow is shooting.
I'm traveling, I have shot Ithink 7,000 targets in
competition already this year.
I mean I have shot everythingand I'm traveling and teaching.
I don't really have time tobear hunt down there anymore and
it's just so expensive to getthem come out during the day.

(41:00):
You've got to start feedingthem six months in advance.
So I don't you know, to getthem come out during the day,
you got to start feeding themsix months in advance.
So I don't you know, if onewalks out in front of me, I'll
shoot him, but I'm not gonna.
I don't have time for that andit's during duck season and
until something drastic changesin my life, uh, I'm gonna do
exactly what I did last year,every year, because that was a
trip of a lifetime.

(41:21):
Um, I'm just going to keepdoing it.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
So so this this is actually the longest of we've
been talking I don't know a longtime If you look down at your
timer on your podcast episodethere of getting to know
somebody.
I don't know that I've everdone that without really talking
about shooting sporting clays.
You know what I mean.
So so you've always been a goodshooter, right?

(41:46):
I remember when I met you atthe Meadows years back I don't
know what class you were in, butI can remember you were a good
shooter and now you're still agood shooter and you're actually
up at the top.
I mean, talk about yourpractice regimen a little bit,
how you got there.
I remember talking to you along time ago and you you'd go
out and shoot constantly byyourself for hours.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Back then I was shooting you know a hundred
thousand shells a year.
Um, you know, as that wholepinball machine that was my
twenties rolled on and just youknow, shooting, whether I knew
it or not, just kind of fell onthe back burner a little bit,

(42:29):
you know, I started skydivingand and it just that was more
exciting to me, that was doingit for me.
I wasn't getting the you knowthe dopamine from from shooting
anymore and it was causingproblems.
So I wasn't causing problems, Ijust wasn't shooting that good.
And then, you know, trying tochase problems that weren't
there by switching guns andswitching stuff, and then you

(42:51):
know, on top of all that justnot practicing, and just, you
know, wasn't mad at him, um,yeah, so then I got out of the
army and just started shootingagain and I was like this year
I'm going to give it at leasttwo years where I put as much

(43:11):
effort as I was in the beginninginto it.
We'll see what happens, becauseI'm not going to keep wasting
my time and money if I'm justgoing to be, you know, mediocre
and just be mad driving homefrom every shoot that I go to.
So I was like, yeah, I want tocompletely relearn the game of
shooting a shotgun All together.

(43:34):
So, corey, you know Corey's mybest friend and I talk to Corey
every day and Corey has been,you know, just a huge blessing.
Corey and his family have beena huge blessing um, for a couple
of years now, but especiallysince I've gotten out of the

(43:54):
army, you know, and they're,they're such good people.
So I'm always you know, corey,I've learned so much about
shooting from Corey and Corey'sactually the one who I bounced
it off of.
I was like, hey, man, I thinkI'm going to go about shooting
from Corey and Corey's actuallythe one who I bounced it off of.
I was like, hey, man, I thinkI'm going to go see Wendell and
he was like, do it Immediately,do it.
I'm like, okay, cool.
So I went and did it and thatis just mind-blowing.

(44:14):
That's like taking the red pilland the matrix on some of the
stuff, because it's a littledifferent and it was very
different for me.
So then just kind of took allthat and was just like you know,
I'm gonna get rid of any egofrom it and just I just want to
learn as much as I can about thegame this year and I've already

(44:39):
quadrupled anything that Ithought I knew you know just
from.
I think my game now is just sucha big combination.
I mean I want to move the gunlike Corey.
You know I want to.
There's a lot of things I'mdoing very similar, very similar
to what Wendell taught mePretty I'm shooting very

(45:02):
different in that regard.
I want to be aggressive likeGreg Wolf.
I want to be able to point agun like Greg Wolf.
I've worked a bunch with Zach.
The biggest things I've learnedfrom Zach I've learned a lot
about shooting from Zach, butthe biggest things I've learned
from Zach is there's nobody thatknows the life, uh, the

(45:23):
lifestyle side of it, like Zachdoes.
Like this is his life.
He shoots more than anybodyelse.
I mean he, he knows the ins andouts of competing and he knows
the ins and outs of thedifferent parts of the coming.
There's nothing that he hasn'tseen.
Um, I mean there's nothing thathe hasn't seen.

(45:44):
So I've learned a ton in thatcategory from him.
I've learned a tremendous amountfrom Wendell and the way that
I'm seeing the target now.
So basically, I just tookeverything I thought I knew and
threw it out the window.
I was like I'm going to reteachmyself how to shoot and
anything that doesn't help mesee the bird better.
I'm going to get rid of it,which for me was overly

(46:09):
excessive gun barrel movementbeing way buried into the gun,
looking out through the top ofmy prescription glasses being
all hunched over I mean it'sjust looking back at it now I'm
like no wonder I was in so muchpain at the end of every round.
So I changed all of it, all ofit.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
I didn't know you went to Wendell.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
I don't think I knew that.
Yeah, I sure did.
And Wendell's got some stufffigured out.
I will say that much withoutgiving all away.
I'm not going to give away histrade secrets for free.
I can go pay him for that.
But I think my opinion andagain opinions, you know, I

(46:55):
think they're like assholesEverybody's got one and they all
stink or whatever that.
However that saying goes, thisis 100% my opinion.
I'll stink, or whatever that.
However that saying goes, thisis a hundred percent my opinion.
Uh, I think Wendell Wendell'sway of seeing the bird I think
he's the only.
I think he's got it figured out.
Uh, I think I think the waythat he sees the bird just

(47:16):
nothing, nothing other than thevisual side of the way he sees
the bird and the way he matchesup his fundamentals to make that
happen better at the end of theway he sees the bird and the
way he matches up hisfundamentals to make that happen
better at the end of the shot.
Uh, it's working for me.
Uh, very well, um, I think Iwent.
What I was running into is, themore I was learning about the

(47:37):
game, the worse I was gettingand I was like well, I know how
to shoot all of it.
You know I've all of thesethings, but I'm not a master of
any of them.
I didn't have a big dumb hammerTo me.
My big dumb hammer needs to bematching the speed of the bird

(47:58):
from in front of the bird,trusting it enough to keep the
barrel in front of the bird andpulling the trigger when I see
it.
Good, that is my big dumbhammer.
So, are you?

Speaker 2 (48:08):
saying you shoot like maintain basically.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
It's not really that kind of plays into, kind of the
way that I kind of restructuredmy thinking of the game is,
rather than looking at it from aperspective of I'm gonna go try
to break 100 birds with a moveyeah, with a singular move, or

(48:33):
any move or a combination ofmoves you know, to me that's
like, for me that was likehaving a having a toolbox with
nothing but a bunch ofscrewdrivers in it.
You know, I didn't have.
I'd gotten farther away fromhow I learned how to shoot,
which was match the speed of thebird from in front of the bird.
So you see it good, then shootit right.

(48:54):
That's like basic.
I mean, obviously it gets way.
You know way more in depth thanthat, but I had gotten away
from that with trying to putmoves on birds and trying to
just do all this, all this stuff.
That uh was hurting me becauseI knew a little bit about a lot
and and I didn't I didn't havethat big dumb hammer.

(49:14):
So this year's been just I wantmy big dumb hammer to be really
good and I'm going to do it allthe time.
I've had some of the bestrounds of my life.
This year I've had some of theworst rounds of my life this
year.
It has definitely been a huge,huge, huge learning curve in how
to shoot in a different mindset.

(49:36):
I've worked on my mindset, I'veworked on all that stuff.
I've probably bounced aroundall over the place, I mean the
biggest thing probably being mymindset and just being relaxed.
I don't, I'm not very good atthat, I'm not, I'm not.
I'm not a very relaxed person.
Um, so learning to shoot, likethat has been, has been totally

(49:56):
different.
Um, you know, but there there'sthere's a lot of mixes in there
.
Um, I kind of wish we could goback and restart the shooting
thing, because I'm just ramblingall over the place now.
But basically I took everythingin my game that I could not
repeat the same exact way threetimes in a row and not got rid

(50:17):
of it, but set it to the sideand just focused on I call it,
you know, my big dumb hammer,what I want to do when I'm
stressed out, what I want to dowhen I don't know what to do,
what I want to do when I'mnervous, what I want to do under
pressure just my big dumbhammer.
And I just focused entirely onmy big dumb hammer all year and

(50:38):
I've done the majority of thaton a skeet field.
I kind of made myself a rule inthe beginning of the season
that I wasn't going to changeanything fundamentally
mechanics-wise the way I'mturning my body or any of that.
I wasn't going to change any ofthat unless it was on a skeet
field.
I've probably shot 10,000shells on a skeet field this

(51:01):
year and maybe 1,000 sportingclays.
So you think, the skeet fieldthis year and maybe a thousand
sporting clays.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
So you think the skeet field helps you.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Oh, yeah, I love skeet, I kind of like it myself,
if it wasn't for the game, Iwould shoot it all the time.
I wish we had internationalskeet, but I don't like the, I
don't like the competition sideof skeet.
You know perfection, par is ahundred.
Yeah, I ski.
You know perfection, par is 100, yeah, I agree.
So, um, that's not very fun tome, so, uh, but shooting it I do

(51:30):
enjoy shooting it.
Um, I really like internationalski, but I'm not any good at
that.
I don't think anybody whodoesn't shoot that all the time
is any good at that yeah, soyou've.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Basically, when you want to practice, you go to a
ski field yeah, yeah, so I, I'mteaching.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
I've been teaching a bunch outside of charleston, um,
at a club outside of charlestonand, and you know I've really
been having a good time thereI'm setting the targets, um.
So the majority of mypracticing has been done there.
Because I'm down there so much,I do still shoot at my range.
I've shot at my range quite abit in the last couple weeks.

(52:12):
I don't use it nearly as muchas I used to.
I've got three clubs that I'mpretty much teaching at.
Most of the time I'll do theoccasional lesson at my place.
For the most part I'm prettymuch teaching at most of the
time and I'll do the occasionallesson at my place, but for the
most part I just I'm never homelong enough to keep targets in
the machines.
But this week, you know, I waslike I was very, very, very had

(52:35):
a ton of confidence coming outof the World English because I
just you, I, I just you know Itanked the first day, made an
adjustment and shot the last twodays like a psychopath and it
was awesome and that must.
That's probably what Brandonfeels like all the time, cause

(52:57):
it's, you know, he's.
The amount of aggression thatthat dude can shoot with is
insane.
I mean you know I 100% givingthat Like it is cool.
So you know I shot the last twodays of that tournament
aggressive, like I need to beshooting, and it worked out
really well.
So I had a ton of confidencefrom that.

(53:17):
So I went home and just startedpracticing.
I mean I shot two, three timesa day for the last five or six
days because, pretty muchbecause the fish weren't biting,
and, do you think, got back tobasics.
I got on my lawnmower.
I was out there and about tostart mowing my grass and I used

(53:40):
to.
I mean, probably last time wetalked, I mean I would I would
shoot at that, my place, everysingle day, no matter what under
the lights, and I'd pick upevery single target that didn't
break and put them back in themachines, just like I had to do
with my dad when I was a kid and, um, I hadn't done that in a
really long time and I was in mylawnmower looking around.

(54:01):
I was like, well, you know,we're we're focusing on getting
back to basics this week, so Imight as well start with that.
So I got off the lawnmower, Ipicked up targets for an hour
and a half and then mowed mygrass and then shot some more
and kind of.
You know, kind of getting backto yeah, getting back to the,
the hunger that I had for it,you know five years ago or five

(54:23):
years ago.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
You think you have that now.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Oh yeah, I think I've .
I didn't know anything backthen.
Like I said, I've learned morethis year from Corey and Zach
and I've been shooting withCraig Wolf a ton.
That is, if you haven't had theopportunity to now, don't go
blow up his score, chaser andstuff, because you know I don't.

(54:49):
I don't want to bother him, buthe's pretty much never had the
opportunity to shoot shotgunwith Greg Wolf.
It is.
It is an experience.
Um, to me, he's the mosttalented shooter on the planet.
I'm his biggest fan.
Like so, to me he's the mosttalented shooter on the planet.
I'm his biggest fan, so I loveshooting with Greg.
And for everybody that doesn'tknow, greg's a world champion.

(55:10):
Just throwing that out therefor the people that don't know.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
I think he's one of the first ones, too Americans.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
One of the first ones .
The first one, I think.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
And I think he's still the youngest.
I think I don't know You'llyoungest, I think I don't know
you have to ask him, but um, soyou know, just just surrounding
myself with, with people I wantto learn from this year.
Well, it's like it's not withanybody.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Cameron, I mean you.
You want to surround yourselfwith who you want to be.
I mean, so to speak.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
You don't want to hang out with much drug addicts
if you want to be successfulI've even shot with, uh, I've
even shot with kevin about Meand Kevin are in the same duck
lease this year.
I mean I've, I've, I've pickedup stuff from Kevin shocker.
Uh, no, but we shot together inFlorida and that we, we had a
real good time and we duckhunting some last year.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
You're in the same duck lease with Kevin.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
I sure am.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Well, there will not be any ducks left when y'all are
finished?
No, there won't be any.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
You'll have to move and I'm excited to be in a lease
like that, because the onelease that I'm in it's real duck
hunters.
So real duck hunters want tosee the decoys work.
You know they want to.
They want birds to land.
They have no problem shootingthem on the water.
I don't like that.
Uh, I, I, I, I want to shoot.
So Kevin's club is a little bitmore tailored to that.

(56:27):
Um, I think so.
So that'll be fun.
But you know, corey, when weducked on in Texas the first day
we went out there, I put my bagin the boat, picked his bag up
and I'm like Corey, what do youhave in here, man?
I'd be.
You know it weighs 25, 30 up.
And I'm like cory, what do youhave in here, man I'd be.
You know it weighs 25, 30pounds and he's like a whole
flat of shells and duck huntingwith cory cruz is a racket, um

(56:53):
good or bad he gets, he getsbored easy.
I'm gonna, that's all I'm gonnasay, without, uh, without
putting any of us in jeopardy,with mr Green Jeans, corey likes
to shoot Anything, dragonfliesI mean.
We probably polished off a flatand a half and maybe three duck

(57:16):
hunting trips, chichi birds Idon't know what a chichi bird is
, but everything.
Don't ever plan on getting aduck mounted with him, because
we, we went on this hunt.
I killed a, uh kill my firstpintail on that hunt and I shoot
that pintail and he's clearlydead.
He's, he's dead, he's done,he's, he's going down.

(57:38):
It's gonna be easy to get him.
Dogs ready, they ready, there,waiting.
Well, here comes Coreyunloading his gun and on the
ShotKam video you could see thisduck get pushed back three feet
every time he hit it on the waydown.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
He wanted to make sure he did so Corey does not
stop shooting.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
Corey does not stop shooting until the duck is on
the water or he's out of shells,which is good you don't lose
many ducks.
It's just not good for yourtaxidermy collection.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
No, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
Or your shell bell or anything like that.
Yeah, but now we circle back tothe duck hunting thing.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
It sounds like you're having fun, though.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
I'm having a great time.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
What do you want to do in shooting?

Speaker 1 (58:23):
What do you want to accomplish in shooting?
Since you're having fun, though, I mean, that's all that
matters.
I'm having a great time.
I mean, what do you want to doin shooting?

Speaker 2 (58:24):
What do you want to accomplish in shooting?
Since you're now back on it,what do you want to accomplish?
Don't say world champion.
Everybody wants to be a worldchampion, I'm talking about.
What do you want to accomplish?

Speaker 3 (58:37):
The first thing I'm going to do is probably end up
moving to Texas just because Iwant to experience.
It won't be full time and Iobviously keep my place in North
Carolina, but I want toexperience that side of the
shooting a little bit more.
You know their fun shoots downthere 200 people.

(58:59):
So I'm going to start with that.
Um, I don't really know.
Be totally honest with you, I,I, I think my main goal right
now is to just be as angry atthem as I possibly can.
Yeah, I, just I want to be ableto go out and put together two

(59:21):
rounds where I shot every singletarget Like I hated it and like
it was shooting back, and if Ididn't see it, you know that's,
that's.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
Yeah, so you will kill it, or?

Speaker 3 (59:35):
kill it or be killed so this is.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
This is what you want to do for I mean for work, for
everything.
You want to be in some sort ofpart of the shooting sports,
whether it be coaching orshooting.
That for everything.
You want to be in the some sortof part of the shooting sports,
whether it be coaching orshooting.
That's all you want to do Ihave no idea.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Uh, and it feels great.
I mean I was so career driventhrough my twenties and and now
I'm in this weird.
I mean I'm still in my twenties, I was so career driven you
know for so long, and now I'mjust in this spot where it don't
matter.
You know I'm doing fine.
I I'm really.
I guess the plan right now isto just keep doing what I'm

(01:00:11):
doing until I either get tiredof it or run out of money.
I guess I don't know.
Um, I'm having, I'm having ablast.
I can't wrap my head around howI'm having this much fun and
it's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
So are you the happiest you've been in a long
time?
It sounds like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
Oh man, that's just, it's yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
Life, life gets, life gets tremendously better.
Uh, when you, you know havingfun, just kind of pay a little
bit more attention to who yousurround yourself with, and you,
you, you know having fun, justkind of pay a little bit more
attention to who you surroundyourself with, and you, you, you
get rid of the stress and you,once you come to realize that if

(01:00:53):
no one's no one's dying, noone's going to die, the
problem's not really that muchof a problem.
Um, yeah, I don't know, justyeah, I mean I'm problem.
Um, yeah, I don't know, justyeah, I mean I'm just, I'm a lot
more relaxed.
I mean, it took me reallyhonestly, it took me a really
long time to to get a handle onmy mental health.

(01:01:15):
I mean, it was, it was doingwonders for me in one side of my
life, but it was.
You was killing me on the otherside.
Well, just think when you endup getting you can't do nothing
about it.
I'm very, very, very, extremelyblessed to be where I'm at
right now.

(01:01:35):
I'm just going to keep doingthis until somebody says
otherwise, I guess, or the worldends.
I've been sitting here watchingthe news with the subtitles on
the whole time and it looks likethat might beat me to it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
It's pretty bad.
Who knows what's going tohappen there.
That's a fact.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
I just read not to tell you that I've been reading
the news while we've been doingthis podcast but I just read
where our government has stoppedsending aid and munitions and
guns to Israel and I'm just likeman.

(01:02:17):
The Bible wrote about this.
There's quite a few places it'swritten down that this you know
, you should probably help themout.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
It's going to be a bad day when they, when
everybody stops helping them out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
You know, it's a whole book of revelation about
it.
And uh, and here we are on Foxnews talking about not sending
them weapons.
It's weird how that stuff playsout.
It's kind of interesting tojust watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
I mean, it makes you think.
You know what I mean.
I mean, who knows?
It's sad.
You know, you said earlier I'vesaid this a hundred times
myself you can't worry about thethings you don't have control
over.
And what are you going to doabout it?
You know nothing.
I mean you can't do anythingabout it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
And that's.
That's not me being like, youknow, being not patriotic.
And I love my country just asmuch, not more, than anybody
else.
You know that's not what I'msaying.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Regardless, but regardless.
But it's kind of naive to notaccept the fact that there's not
a whole lot that you're goingto do to to change that.
It takes a lot of people,obviously, and I understand you
know it takes one person, startswith one person and all that.
But we're way past that.
We're way past that.
We're in survival mode at thispoint, unfortunately, and

(01:03:41):
hopefully it turns around, but Ithink it's about to get pretty,
pretty western all right, solet's.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
I've never done this before.
I'm gonna ask you some.
I'm gonna ask you a fewquestions and you, I have no
idea what I'm gonna ask you whatwhat's your favorite movie?
10 cup.
Next question favorite what'syour favorite kind of you?

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
ever seen a movie with kevin costner.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
I have, but I don't.
It's been a long time ago yougotta watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
That that's.
That's when I watched that.
I'm glad that I didn't see thatearlier in life.
And a good friend of mine waslike you need to watch this
movie because that's you.
I was like this movie was madefor me, although it was made
before I was born.
But but that's me, no, I likethat.
Yeah, that's my favorite movie.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Favorite kind of music or favorite song or
whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
That's a hard one.
I'm all over the place withthat.
I'm definitely more of aclassic rock guy but I have been
known to get down to Elvis orthe Bee Gees.
I even like Elton John dude.
I was listening to Elton Johntoday.
I listened to Elton JohnSaturday nights.
All right For fighting was waswas going through my head the

(01:04:55):
whole time when I had those twogood round the second two days
that I shot pretty well at theworld.
World sporting, that's all thatwas playing Elton John in my
little car, perfectly fittingalright, let's do one more of
your favorite food probablyoysters.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
I thought you were going to say pizza or chicken no
oysters or frog legs.
I like frog legs a lot you likeputting the salt on them and
watch them jump around.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
I don't know, I was never the one cooking them, but
I ate them a lot as a kid.
I still eat them sometimes.
I don't know, I'm not really apicky eater.
That's probably why I've stayedpretty thin.
I am getting pretty out ofshape.
You need to get a haircut.
I'm actually looking in themirror right now in my hotel

(01:05:58):
room and thinking that I'mstarting to kind of look like uh
, like a girl with a beard my myhair.
I mounted my gun today and myhair got stuck in between my
stock and my shoulder.
That's where I'm going to drawthe line.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
I'm going to get it chopped off when I get back not
not crazy, but I'm going to getit trimmed well, I think that
anybody that listens to thiswhole podcast here I know this
is a longer one, but I know thatif anyone has seen you at a
shoot or if anyone's seen yourname on the results, you

(01:06:32):
shouldn't have any problem nowknowing a little bit about
Cameron.
I think he's a prettyinteresting guy and I've always
told you that You've done a lotof things that I have a lot of
questions about, but I just I'mnot going to ask you about them,
I just you know, it's just, itis what it is, and I think that
I think what you've done is isreally impressive.
You know, from really the start, I learned a lot today, but

(01:06:56):
what you've done, from start tofinish or to where you're at now
, is, uh, is pretty impressive.
I'm actually proud of you.
So you know, I'm glad you'reglad you're doing good yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
And I'm sure, uh, you know, you and probably
everybody else is hoping for alot more stories about the army
and stuff.
And I I'm not by any means, anyway, shape or form.
I can't stand people who claimto be something they're not.
I, I, I can't stand that.
I was a green beret.

(01:07:25):
I did some cool stuff in thearmy, but I have friends that
have done some some the realcool stuff, right like I.
I just scratched the surfacejust a little bit you were just
there, so to speak, and they'veyeah, I'll get you some old
school g watt sf guys to have onyour podcast for just and y'all

(01:07:49):
can.
Y'all can have at it, becausethose were the dudes you know my
whole career I spent.
I remember when I was a littlekid watching us in Afghanistan
and Iraq on the TV.
I was like I want to go I'm insecond grade but I want to go
Then join the Army, get to go toAfghanistan in the latter part,

(01:08:10):
the very latter part of thegood years where it was still
kind of Western.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Can't be Western anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
No, it stopped right after that.
So then you know, you chase thenext thing up a little bit
higher to cut, to try to keepgetting those, uh, those
missions.
You know those, those trips andthat experience.
And then you know it, just itjust gets to a point where now

(01:08:39):
you know, now we're not inAfghanistan anymore, I think a
bunch of countries have kickedus out of Africa, like we're.
You know, I think some real badstuff happened.
But all that stuff, that GWATera, you know, remember 9-11 as
a kid is kind of the military Iwanted to be in and that's over

(01:09:02):
now and that's fine, that's agood thing, don't?

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
have a stupid thing.
It's not all about that, though.
You know what I'm saying.
Like you telling the story,it's not all about what you did
in the military.
It's.
To me, what's impressive isthat you did it.
You know, and I've always toldyou that I think it's for people
that are like me that havenever been in the military, it's
really cool to know someonethat's been there, not to

(01:09:27):
Afghanistan, but been to whereyou were in the military.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
You know what I'm saying, and that's yeah, yeah,
and I'm sure you know Idefinitely take a lot of the
cool experiences that I had inthe military for granted.
Um, you know, like the, theskydiving and the halo stuff
when I was in the free fall teamand and and you know all that

(01:09:51):
stuff.
Like, I definitely take thatfor granted because that's,
that's an awesome story.
I, that's an awesome story.
I'm just not.
I'm just in a phase in my liferight now where I'm trying to
figure out what the next one'sgoing to be.
Yeah, and I've kind of justI've moved, I've trying to move
on from all that, if that makessense.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
I don't really know how to do it.
Uh, it hasn't been as bad as Ithought.
It's been tough.
I mean there's, you know,there's plenty of days where I
really, really miss it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
Um, so then I just find something else to do, like
go fishing, um, but uh, you know, just like the kind of like the
, the different guns you got toshoot, you know that's, that's
cool, oh.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Oh yeah, that people can't just go shoot those guns,
I mean, you know.
So that kind of stuff, my firstday.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Okay, here's your funny story.
To wrap it up my first day onan ODA, my first day on a
Special Forces team, was the dayafter Corey Hold on, let me get

(01:11:01):
my time.
Uh, corey, hold on, let me getmy timelines.
It was after a big shoot atNorthbrook.
It might've been the one Coreywon.
I don't know if it was the oneCorey won, it might've been
before that, I don't know.
Anyways, it was a big shoot atNorthbrook.
So I had gone and I had todrive 13 hours back on that
Sunday and be at work at seveno'clock in the morning on Monday
to sign into my first ODA.

(01:11:21):
So we go to the range and we'reat range 44 shooting you know
heavy.
That's where we shoot all theheavy stuff.
You know AT-4s, mortars,miniguns, all that stuff.
And I'm shooting an AT-4.
I can't remember if it was aCarl Gustav or an AT-4.
It was a shoulder-fired rocketlauncher.

(01:11:41):
Basically, they don't kick likea shotgun kicks, they kick the
other way and the triggers arepretty substantial.
I mean, you guys flees it and Ihad been shooting a
two-and-a-half-pound Kregofftrigger all weekend.
And I get back and I've nevershot one before and I had been
shooting a two-and-a-half-poundKregoff trigger all weekend and
I get back and I never shot onebefore and I also didn't want to
tell anyone that I had nevershot one before, even though it

(01:12:03):
was perfectly normal.
I mean, only a pool pass couldget that type of stuff.
So I shot an AT-4.
I never shot a Carl G.
That's what it was.
It was a Carl G and anyways, Ianticipated the recoil and
flinch and shot that suckerright to the ground about

(01:12:24):
probably 25 to 30 yards in frontof me, over the burn, and
there's 60 other people outthere shooting.
I mean, there's a large crowd.
I had quite the large audienceand I smoked a bush at about 30
yards with a Carl G and therewas dust everywhere and
everything stopped and I'm likeI didn't do that.
That was quick, that was quickand, uh, you know, I got hey,

(01:12:52):
he's pretty good for that onefor a long time and it was a
long time before I even I didnot go out of my way to shoot
one of those a second time.
I knew it was fun, I justwanted to do it in private.
No one's going to let you shoota rocket launcher in private.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
That's what that is is a rocket launcher.

Speaker 3 (01:13:09):
It sets off all the car alarms within a quarter of a
mile.
I shot that sucker into theground.
Then the Bravo on the team waslike.
He was like what did he say?
He said I always find the armand feet, the arm and distance.
It's got to spin a certainnumber of times to arm itself
before you know.

(01:13:30):
So if you shoot a brick wall infront of you, hypothetically it
shouldn't go off.
I wouldn't want to test it.
So he was saying the arm anddistance was like 100 yards or
something like that.
And I was like that don't soundright.
So I pulled out the manual,looked up 30 feet.
If a Carl G round hits within30 feet of you, there's not

(01:13:50):
gonna be, there's not gonna bemuch left to identify you by.
So that didn't put my mind atease.
I wasn't 30 feet, I was about30 yards.
So I got lucky, but dusteverywhere.
So yeah, that's probably one ofmy funniest.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Funny, but not so funny at this, you know funny
that I can.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
I can talk about, you know, yeah, yeah, Other other
steps, like over a beerconversation or something like
that, probably stuff we'vealready talked about.
They're real funny.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
Well, cameron.
Thanks man, I appreciate yourtime.
I know you're.
You're in your hotel room.
You probably want to get to gointo eat or something.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
but uh, I appreciate you telling your story and uh if
if anyone's made it this far,that you crap out whatever you
don't want.
I'm about to go find a wafflehouse and, uh, get ready to
shoot tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
So well, good luck shooting.
And uh, I'll see you.
I'll be at the us open, I knowyou'll be there.
And uh, we'll catch up thereand uh, we'll get us something
to eat all right, buddy, soundsgood.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
All right, we'll see you.
It ain't me, I ain't nomilitary soldier, it ain't me,
it ain't me, I ain't no watchin'it all.
It ain't me, it ain't me, Iain't no watchin' it all.

(01:15:31):
It ain't me, it ain't me, Iain't no watchin' it all.