Wild Hogs, and Wild Hippopotami

On this episode, Doug discusses the three fish trout limit (and how that's of benefit), speaks to finding snakes in pit blinds (including how best to deal with them), interviews Ed Arrighi from American Shooting Centers, and much more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Saturday morning edition of the program starts right now.
Thank you all for joining me, whoever you are, wherever
you are. I was thinking about that yesterday. I can't
see you, can't hear you. Well, you can call. You're
always welcome to call. You know that this show is
the show is about us, not about me, And I

(00:20):
am always willing to take calls, always willing to get
as many of you in as possible. The only rules.
First of all, no cursing. Keep it as g rated
as what was the most g rated movie ever? Brett,

(00:40):
what do you think? Just the snow white? Snow white,
that's a very good way to put that. Keep it
g people. Yeah, and just I mean straight G not
PG not PG thirteen. Because there are little kids in
the audience. And as I've talked about before, I get it.

(01:01):
I've seen what some people think is cute and funny
to let their little kids say. See it on the internet.
Just yesterday there was a little boy whose dad. He
was playing catch with his dad. He was tossing some
sort of little rubber ball to his dad, and his
dad was holding a whiffleball bat and the little kid

(01:22):
tosses it to his dad. And the dad, being a dad,
just jack's it over the fence, over the house, and
this little three and a half maybe year old boy.
The next thing he said, if I said it on
the radio, I would be fined and probably fired. And
the dad just burst out laughing, Oh that's so funny.

(01:45):
Look look what he said. And I'm sure it was
mom who was taking a video. Somebody had to be
out there in the backyard. Not funny, because what I
don't want I don't want any parent to have to
interrupt listening to the show to explain to a child
what a word means like that, And if we have

(02:08):
to dump you, we'll dump you. But and bear in mind,
I am, I am aware that that language has eased
into a new level of acceptance with most people. And hey,
the next bad word I say won't be my first.

(02:28):
I'm not gonna I'm no choir boy. But when I'm
sitting in here and knowing that there are little children
listening to what I'm saying, I want to make sure
that mom and dad don't have to stop and try
to explain something. What's that mean? What's that mean? Now,
we're the only thing that's gonna mean is it's a

(02:50):
giant fish that you caught, or a great buck that
you shot, or a double on Mallard drakes that were
dropping into the decoys, whatever cool thing happened to you, fishing, hunting,
whatever you're doing outdoors, camping, hiking, all of those things
fair game. Let's just bring it on. Let's talk about

(03:11):
all of it. But let's not have to explain things
to little kids. That's all I ask. And keep it civil,
keep it level headed. There's reason that I'm coming back
to these little disclaimers. If you will every week. I
just I want to make sure that everybody understands, first

(03:31):
of all, that your calls are always welcome here. And
I don't mind if if I'm talking about something that
I really want, that I'm working toward a point to
get to, and I see the call screen in here
pop up with something that's totally off topic, I might
ask Brett or Frankie or whoever is in here. I

(03:52):
might ask them to ask you if you can hold
for a little while while I get to my point,
because if I'm building up to something, I don't want
to just train wreck it. But if it's not something
really important, I also will say yeah, leave him there.
I'll get him right away and maybe maybe something will
come of that. Who knows always welcome seven one three

(04:15):
two one two five seven ninety Put it in your phone.
Test it out Sometime. I love it when I hear
somebody say they've been listening for a while, but it's
the first time they called, Like, why, There's nothing scary
about being on the radio. It's just it's just like
talking to a buddy and having a bunch of people
eavesdropping on your conversation. Is that a Is that a
fair assessment, Brett? Sounds fair to me. Yeah, you know,

(04:37):
it's just this quiet, private, little conversation that you and
I are having. But then if you look over your shoulder,
there's like a lot of people sitting there. All right.
This is July twenty six, Oh my gosh, barely five
weeks from dub season. More on that in a little while.
A quick glance up and down the coast, and I'm
actually gonna jump over here to my little laptop. I

(05:00):
only got my new laptop. I'm so excited, kind of
because the horror stories I'm hearing now from other people
who have gotten them recently are that they're they're being
told that everything on their laptop. Don't worry. As soon
as you plug in that new one, we have everything
stored in the cloud or up in the sky or wherever,
and it'll all just populate automatically once you plug into

(05:20):
our system. Nobody who's plugged one in yet has had
that happen. Simply, there's there's been a problem every single time,
every single time. All right, what I'm looking for is
the the national or not the National, but the wind

(05:41):
when live windsurf siteiwindsurf dot com. Oh, up and down
the coast. Ah, Well, there is there's anomaly fifteen miles
an hour at Freeport. But then going south from there
Matta Gorda five Matta goor to eight. Which little station
is this? I don't even know what that is? Nine

(06:03):
miles an hour all the way down past Corpus Christi.
There are well, hold on, let me check this one.
Port of ramsis fourteen miles an hour, ten miles an
hour south of that, nine miles an hour south of that.
If ever, there was a time to just jump in
the car and drive to the North Padre Island Seashore

(06:25):
for a few days, this might be a really good one.
This might be a really good one. I overheard some
conversation this morning on the way in about the surf
down there spitting up big trout, and it's an odd
time of year. It's a little late for all of
this to be kicking off, but hey, you got to
take it when you get it. And the seasons. Anybody

(06:46):
who's been around the outdoors, as long as as the
people I run around with and myself have been, know
that things are happening, that they're tending to happen, These
these things by which we set our watches thirty forty
years ago. Okay, on this date this week, at least,
the fishing is gonna start to do this. Now it's three, four, five,

(07:12):
six weeks later that these things are happening, And my
gut says, hey, I don't care when they happen, as
long as they happen. If we don't get a good
stretch of calmer winds and calmer surf and fish in
the surf until a month after it used to happen
when we were teenagers, okay, so we wait an extra month.

(07:35):
That just gets us closer and closer to dove season
without having to moan about not getting any fish, we're
we're gonna get them. We're gonna get it all every
the seasons. The seasons may shift a little bit, but
they're not gonna They're not gonna go away. And we're
gonna boy in about you, mark my words. In a

(07:56):
week or two, we're gonna be moaning about how hot
it is because we can't get any wind along the coast.
And anytime I say that, I'm gonna knock on wood
because there's there's those things. There was that yellow blob
in the Gulf again this week, the second the first
one actually got a name for about an hour and

(08:17):
a half. I think, if I'm not mistaken, there was
There was Andrea. Then what was the second one? Brett?
Do you remember? It wasn't Brett?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Was it?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Hope, God, I haven't seen at Nobody wants to name
its hurricane Brett.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Well, it's not intimidating sounding. In any event, I'm not
sure if the second one is even popped up yet
and actually gotten the name. I may be wrong on that.
I think it did, though. In any event, this this
yellow blob, the second yellow blob of the season, forms
kind of over northern Florida. Earlier in the week and

(08:51):
then pushes this way, and now it's even it's off
the map. It's gone. It's it's a non event except
for rain showers that are gonna be welcomed up intown
on the coast here for sure, even down toward Corpus,
even all the way to pourt Isabelle. This afternoon. They're
supposed to get some rain down there, if they're lucky
up here. It's not. It's not like storm rain. It

(09:13):
really isn't. There's just no rhyme or reason. It's all
scattered little pop ups here, pop ups there, And I
don't think we have to. I'm not sure how much
more rain we'll get out of this thing. There were
some showers off the coast a little earlier, but really
around here not much. I walked out this morning to

(09:36):
extreme humidity, extreme humidity, but no rain all the way in.
It's just sloppy summer. It's a summer morning in Houston, Texas.
That's all it is. It's not a big deal. No
nothing to see here. Okay. Bayfishing moving into that all

(09:56):
too familiar croaker pattern now, and you can tell, you
can tell when people just totally give up on throwing
lures for this time of year and willing to stand
in line for two hours outside the bait camp so
they can get their three, four, five dozen croakers and

(10:17):
go drop them on the bottom. And most of those
people won't get through all the croakers they bought trying
to get the three fish apiece in the boat, and
a more power to them. If you're a If you
can figure out a way to catch croakers and sell
them wholesale and make any money off of it, good
for you because there's a market for him, that's for sure,

(10:38):
and it's gonna stay that way through most of the summer.
It's not easy this time of year to catch fish
on lures, except maybe in the surf, the surf when
they're on in the surf, when those fish are eating
in the serf, you could You could take a pair
of scissors and cut a chunk off the bottom of
your T shirt and put it on a hook and
throw it out there, and you could catch trout done

(11:00):
that in the surf at night on the old and
I mean dating myself old surf side fishing pier. Now,
my buddy mine and I were out there and we
ran out of white plastic lures we didn't have anymore.
So we ran up to the little tackle shop at
the base of the pier, said, Hey, we need some

(11:21):
white Kelly wigglers. Nope. Sorry, I don't have any. Nune none,
You don't have any, Nope. And everybody on the pier
had already bought every white Kelly wiggler they had, and
that was the only soft plastic available at that time.
And so we looked at each other and both of
us were standing there in little kid T shirts of

(11:41):
the day, and I'm pretty sure we didn't have a
pair of scissors with us, but we had a knife,
and we cut little chunks off the bottoms of those
T shirts and went to catching trout again. The by
the way, the croaker thing. If you like to throw crokers,
if that's how you like to catch your trout, I
have no quarrel with you whatsoever. I have no quarrel

(12:02):
with you whatsoever. And a lot of fishermen, honestly, would
be lost without it, and we'd lose them from fishing,
probably because to stand out there and throw lures all day,
if that's not what you want to do, that's hard,
that's really hard, and you might not catch many fish.
I don't care how many fish I catch anymore. I'm
not trying to prove anything to anybody, so I still

(12:26):
would rather use artificial lures. And I'll get to some
of that a little bit after the break. We've run
fast into this first fence that we have to hop,
so let's do that. Shift gears fishing to golf, and
I've got some golf stuff to talk about too, a
little bit later on Timber Creek Golf Club down there
on FM twenty three fifty one in friends Wood is

(12:47):
among my favorites, certainly on that side of town, no
question about it. I've been playing down there since they
opened the place back around the turn of the century,
somewhere in there. I can't remember exactly what year it was.
It's been a hot minute, but every time i've been
back down there since, it's just been as good or
better than it was the last time I got down there.
They got a great teaching facility now up and running

(13:09):
for more than a year. Under the wise observation of
mister JJ Woods, that's right next to the driving range.
You can't miss that ten building over there. Go in
there and tell them something's wrong with your swing, and
you don't have to leave until they fix it. I
think I'm not sure how he operates that. Like I said,
twenty seven holes, which means they're getting out twice as
many people on the early tea times as an eighteen

(13:34):
hole course can. And just a good bunch of people
down there who want nothing more than for you to
have a good time, whether that means some aiming fluid
while you're on the golf course, maybe a good meal
before or after you play, and then just an easy
fun place to throw a tournament too if you need
to raise a bunch of money for a good cause.
Timber Creek Golf Club dot com, you can go there

(13:55):
and set your own tea time right now, timber Creek
Golf Club dot com, seven nineteen on Sports Talk seven ninety,
I appreciate you listening this morning. Pike Chof's got a
picture from Travis. Travis went out into the woods with
hold On with his daughter. That's who That is, his

(14:17):
daughter who knocked out a big old pig. Well done,
well done. I don't have her name, or I would.
I would congratulate her more personally than Travis's daughter. Did
he include it, No, he does not. It's all right.
I wasn't going to talk about pigs at all this morning,

(14:37):
but I will just briefly because the subject actually came
up during fifty plus this week. I was talking about
invasive species here, there, and everywhere, and hogs are a
problem here and in Columbia. I saw a story. I
don't know if you guys, well, you guys wouldn't have

(14:57):
talked about this at all, Brett, you're your guys. You
run heard over usually uh down in Columbia thanks to
the egotistical, maniacal wack adoodle drug lords down there, Suddenly,
after escaping from personal enclosures that belong to these drug lords,

(15:20):
suddenly Colombia's gone from having one or two behind bars,
if you will, hippopotami to more than two hundred running
free around that country, two hundred hippopotamuses where there should
be no hippopotami. And that's that's way worse than having

(15:42):
a pig problem, I think from a human standpoint. And
these are the cocaine hippos, right, well, that's the descendants
of the cocaine hippos. That's extra not good. Then those
candy hippos whatever you call that stuff. Yeah, that that's
an issue down there. It's certainly is now Hogs up

(16:02):
here in North America a greater problem overall because of
all the damage they do to agriculture, and even boy
up in Kingwood for a while they were having big
problems with them, and out just you name it, whatever
outlying neighborhood Richmond had problems in some of the neighborhoods.

(16:24):
All of these out friends would Parland any place that
there we used to be just wide open land that
suddenly became houses. They had problems with pigs, and may
still and may still. It's nothing we there's nothing we
can do about it now that horse left the barn

(16:45):
a long time ago. The opportunity to put that population
in check and keep it from being worse, that's over.
We're not going to get that. The old say about
pigs now amongst people who know the most about and
the wild hogs that run rampant around the entire entirety

(17:08):
of North America almost is the story about the sow
who gave birth to to seven piglets and eleven survived.
It's just kind of how the how it works, and
there's nothing we're gonna do about it. Back to the
trout thing, a little bit. The three fish limit is
doing so much good, so much good for this population.

(17:31):
And the optimism that I hear amongst people who just
call or email, send me pictures, whatever, all of that
optimism is legitimate because it's real. It's happening right before
our eyes. Trout fishing wasn't so good, wasn't It was okay,

(17:52):
it was getting better slowly, but it was also still
kind of right on the edge of one big freeze
from being devastated again like it has been two or
three times in my lifetime. And so now with the
limit being three, even with people out there soaking their
croakers like they've done for the last twenty years or so, summertime, boy,

(18:16):
that's the summertime bail out right there, that's your safe space.
If you can't throw top waters, you can't throw jigs,
and you can't throw swimming plugs, and you can't seem
to get a bite on a live shrimp, you chunk
croker out there, You'll be okay, you'll be okay. You're
gonna catch some fish, but you're only gonna be able

(18:36):
to keep three. And I even I even did the
math on the guides. Guides who fish with croakers sometimes
get criticized for taking one, two, three trips a day.
But even if a guide. Let's say that guy had
three people on his boat and he took a trip

(18:57):
out in the morning back when the limit was five.
They they brought back fifteen to the dock. Okay, Gude's
not gonna even fish. He's just gonna unhooked fish and
hook crokers and sling them out there. Cast it for you,
tighten the line for you, do everything for you but
cook them. And so you got three guys on the boat,

(19:17):
they bring back their five, that's fifteen fish out of
the population. The guy takes another three guys out there
for the afternoon and they catch fifteen. So that's thirty
fish for the day out of the population. So now
the limits three first trip of the day three times
three nine fish on the dock. Guy goes back out

(19:41):
again nine more fish, eighteen fish total. He makes a
third trip and gets nine more. That's only twenty seven
compared to the thirty he was taking out of the
population with two trips of five. So I think we

(20:02):
have finally got the formula that's going to account for
extra people in the fishery. It's going to account for
better equipment, better boats, better everything, and still give these
trout a fighting chance to recover, and still give everybody
who's coming up behind us a chance to catch a

(20:22):
lot of big fish. Hey, Dave, what's up, man?

Speaker 5 (20:26):
Well, we had that led Zeppelin over there. I got
I've got an album that's in mint condition. I've got
a bunch of albums that.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
I used to and I don't need more.

Speaker 6 (20:36):
I hung on to them.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
I had them in a wooden box I built good
for you. Hey, No, when you were talking about good
wholesome stuff, Yeah, the movie Baby, that's about it. We
kind of got a little grief on that about, you know,
for the deer hunters. But you know, we've talked about
having to tend to herd.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
You know, let me tell you what. Let you I
can say this very quickly. If we don't hunt deer,
what the people who hate deer hunting will see in
short order, maybe it in two years or less. What
they're gonna see is a bunch of starving, disease riddle
deer that are suffering like crazy because the land can't

(21:19):
can't accommodate. We don't have enough food left in the
wild land of Texas as much as there is to
support more deer, we've got to find that herd every year. Amen,
go ahead, Yeah, I got you on that.

Speaker 6 (21:32):
Amen, on a hey.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
And then I did run down there to the to
the boat dogs down there, and there was only about
five trailers there with trucks, and then all of a
sudden here comes some other ones, some pontoon boats. And
then one guy he had this one, a white fiberglass
boat with that inboard motor. Oh yeah, damaha, I think

(21:55):
in any way, when he went and picked the guys up,
I heard him yell and put his hands on top
of his head.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Oh, man, I hit the dock.

Speaker 7 (22:06):
You know that's sad.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
I mean, I don't we don't mean to laugh, but
I mean, like you got to you gotta be careful
on the water. And then I did throw some corn
out there for Wilburt and Gertrude and my pet good dougs.

Speaker 7 (22:17):
Now they weren't there.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
Yet, and and right now, uh, I got to get
to work over here and finish and moving in.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Oh, I'm going to pick the dogs up tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
Good in Boomer, We got the cage done, and we
got the big backyard. When I let him out of
the cage run around. So let me just say it
like this like old Kreman used to say, God bless us,
got to keep us in. God bless them there.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Thank you, Dave. Good to hear from you, buddy. All right,
thank you, sir, audios. Let me go grab dam before
we go to break. What's up, Dan Martin.

Speaker 7 (22:50):
Sir, long time caller, first time listener.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Oh God, you got a million of them, don't you.

Speaker 7 (22:57):
Yes, I try real hard.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
How you doing trying?

Speaker 7 (23:00):
But I'm looking like this man, But you know it's
it's rough. But that's so about all I.

Speaker 6 (23:05):
Got to do.

Speaker 7 (23:05):
Anyway. Today is my grandson. One of my grandson's birthdays.
He is fifteen today. His name is Dominant. His name
is Dominique. So happy birthday.

Speaker 8 (23:16):
But a little buddy, h well, it's not required.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
It's okay. You could say no.

Speaker 7 (23:24):
I really don't know. I don't think so okay, man,
I think he has I think he went hunting with
his with his uncle. My daughter's my son in law once.

Speaker 6 (23:39):
Huh.

Speaker 7 (23:39):
Anyway, yeah, anyway, and then I have a granddaughters. It'll
be twenty on the thirtieth.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Holy cow man.

Speaker 7 (23:49):
Yeah, well here in about two weeks period. I had
a granddaughter that turned thirteen a couple of weeks ago,
and then Dominic's is today, he's fifteen, and then Dizzy
Shild she'll be twenty.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
You know what. That's cold weather does that to people,
you know.

Speaker 7 (24:06):
Yeah, you know he'll be in those arts. They've got
to do something to stay warm in the winter town. Anyway,
I just got one more thing and day it's enough.

Speaker 6 (24:18):
Stimson seeds.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh lord, stop it, go Lee, I'll see you. He
just hung up on his own. Yeah, that was a
reference I made, uh during fifty plus this week to
something that was I don't even remember what brought it up.
All right, we're gonna take this break here. When we
get back, i'll tee it up with Rick, see what's
on his mind, and then we'll plod through. I got
a lot of stuff to unwrap, unpack, as the cliche

(24:43):
goes about dub season coming up, and I think you'll
be pleased to hear that also pleasant to hear if
you're a cigar person. Is there's a place right here
in well it's in Texas City. It's not in Houston,
but right in Texas City. That is actually a manufacturing
facility for cigars for very fine mostly tobacco grown down

(25:07):
in Central America. It's Cuban seed tobacco that's been taken
down there and planted in a place where we can
get it back into our country simply. And the man
who runs that show down there in Texas City is
named Manny Lopez. He and his father started that company
about I think nineteen years ago, and since then he

(25:28):
and with help from some other native born Cubans who
grew up in the in the cigar business, he has
turned it into a fantastic business that will not only
provide you with whatever of their one hundred and fifty
varieties of cigars you want, but also we'll take on
custom orders. And by that I mean you can go

(25:49):
in and select the specific cigars you want, whether you
want them all the same or you want a variety bunch.
You can have the bands custom made, which he did
for us over here at iHeart and that those are
some really cool looking cigars. They really truly are. If
you have a wedding reception, if you have a big gathering,

(26:09):
a class reunion, something like that, anything a celebration of
some promotions in your company, get some custom banded cigars
to go along with that. And he'll also even come
out and put up one of those little pop up canopies,
sit at a folding table and roll cigars individually for

(26:29):
guests at your affair or whatever it may be. Manny
Lopez very cool guy. He ships hundreds of cigars all
over the country every day too. By the way, So
if you know somebody who really loves cigars but they're
in Iowa or New York or God help them, California,
send them some cigars that'll help them get through what
they're going through out there. El Koubanoigars dot Com is

(26:53):
the website. They've got a smoking lounge right there at
the factory, and then another one over in League City,
just about ten fifteen minutes away from the first one,
El Cubano Cigars dot com. Elcubano Cigars dot Com. Seven
thirty six on Sports Talk seven ninety The Dougpike Show.
Let me turn this volume up to se teeny oney

(27:13):
bit here we go. By the way, Travis's daughter, the
young woman who shot the hog, her name is Cambriy.
He didn't put that in the first He was just
so so proud he had his daughter out there hunting
with him. He forgot to put her name in, but
he sent it to me afterwards. And that's a good.
Let's go talk to Rick Bace. What's up Rick? Hey, Doug? Oh,
good morning man? Hewy you doing.

Speaker 9 (27:37):
Getting back in the truck Here, I'm sitting.

Speaker 10 (27:39):
In front of electric gate, turning my truck up because
I can't.

Speaker 9 (27:42):
Find the gate open. But I need to break So
here we are. I wanted to talk to you. You mentioned
invasis species. Yes, sir, there was an article in the paper.
I want to assume it was this week in the Columbus,
Texas newspaper. I don't know the exact name. There was

(28:02):
an article about that. Now Columbus is in Colorado County
and five retty correctly, it didn't mention Colorado County, but
it didn't mention Austin County.

Speaker 10 (28:14):
That's where Belleville is.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
Tellville Meet Market.

Speaker 9 (28:18):
That the state of Texas is now approved of bounty
for farough has really And the article goes on to
say that you can get a bounty you have per family,
you can have you get twenty I think it's twenty
bounty bounties per month.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Oh wow, okay, uh, you have.

Speaker 9 (28:40):
To report how many of you have harvested in a year.
So there's some paperwork involved, and you have to take
the years, put them in a plastic bag, and there's
three designated places in the area that you can turn
them in and how somehow collect your five dollars. Okay, okay, Well,

(29:03):
so I want to come in on that for a second.
All right, First of all, are you gonna still out
a bunch of paperwork and go cut some hog years off,
improve it.

Speaker 10 (29:11):
Or paral hunks?

Speaker 9 (29:12):
Put them in a plastic bag and take them and
drop them off at a drop off spot for five dollars?

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Probably not?

Speaker 10 (29:19):
Probably not?

Speaker 8 (29:20):
I doubt it.

Speaker 7 (29:21):
Anyway.

Speaker 9 (29:23):
The other thing that it was saying that this was
some kind of there's a little maybe. It sounded like
it was a law that was passed in twenty twenty four,
and if I remember, if I was thinking correctly, it
was about a year ago.

Speaker 10 (29:37):
So I'm first I'm thinking why.

Speaker 9 (29:38):
Did it take If it was inact of a year ago.

Speaker 10 (29:40):
Why did it take a year? But that's not my point.
Here's my point. In these counties.

Speaker 9 (29:45):
Out here I'm in every day. Five years ago, there
was hogs feral hogs everywhere.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Day or night.

Speaker 9 (29:53):
I was traveling enough, okay, sure, And I'm gonna tell
you today, I don't see new as many as I
used to.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
I was thinking that, Yeah, you know, it dawned on
me when I was talking about them a little while
ago that I'm not seeing when I'm driving all over
the prayer when I'm here, there and everywhere every now
and you'll see a little damage, but you don't see
them just shooting across the road like you used to.

Speaker 9 (30:16):
You know, they're very adaptable. You will never completely eradicate them.
There is a use for them for me personally, because
I haven't bought any pork from a grocery store in
about fifteen years, but other than pork ribs and hamhocks.
But anyway, there's two reasons, in my opinion, while we

(30:39):
don't see them like they are because I think they're
kind of in check. I think I think, I think
the control is.

Speaker 10 (30:47):
Being somewhat managed.

Speaker 9 (30:49):
And and here's why.

Speaker 10 (30:52):
Two reasons.

Speaker 9 (30:53):
One is the technology that's out there now for the trapping.

Speaker 8 (31:01):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (31:01):
And I mean I can drop the I can't, but
I've got I know where places you can drop the
door on a trap on your phone. Okay, it tells
you there's hogs in the trap, and you dropped the door.

Speaker 8 (31:14):
Bam, you got them.

Speaker 9 (31:16):
Okay, so you know there's no missing. That's one thing.
Trapping is greatly improved. And there's three things. The technology
of the infrared honey. People have really got into infrared honey.
They're very nocturnal, and so people are going out here
at night and they're not shooting one. You know, they
got guns that don't make any noise anymore. And they'll

(31:38):
set there in five, five, six, seven, ten or fifteen
of them, depends.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Who else there.

Speaker 10 (31:43):
So that's putting the den in it, no doubt.

Speaker 9 (31:45):
The last thing. The last thing is this The most
effective way to get rid of hogs off of your
property is probably not the best way, especially with the
properties being slowly subdivided or quickly hervey want to look
at it more fencing. But when you get down here
on these bigger tracks on the rivers and further out

(32:06):
and little larger tracks, the most effective way is guys
that are i'm gonna call them professionals that have professional
technology and hog dogs.

Speaker 10 (32:18):
They can't they can't and and the guys can't lose
the dogs anymore.

Speaker 9 (32:26):
If they have the right technology, they're cracking them on
a little laptop, you know, and they get the fences,
they can try to turn them around. Some are gonna
turn around, some are. But the biggest problem is we
have we still have lots of people say I don't
want them on my property, the dogs. So that's a
little bit of a problem. But the most effective way

(32:46):
is going to be them dogs. And I know it's
kind of a blood sport in a way, but at
the same time, it's the most effective if it's tearing
up your crops.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yep, Hey, I got a run. You got us to it,
Thank you, Rick, see men audios. All right, let me
get that done. Yeah, I'll come back to that. And
I got a phone call I'm gonna take when we
get back as well. I got to get this break
in on time though. Riceland Waterfowl Club. I made an
eyes tour the prairie out there in Eagle Lake by

(33:18):
the goud guy. Was it a week ago already? Holy cow,
it was a wee could go. Thursday, I was out
there riding around with David Pruitt and Jeff from Riceland
Waterfowl Club and got really got into their heads and asked,
I think some pretty good questions and did a whole

(33:39):
lot of listening, kept my mouth shut and kept my
ears open, and learned how how truly dedicated these guys
are to making sure that anybody and everybody who is
a member of that club gets the maximum return on
their duck hunting dollar. These guys are constant. All they

(34:01):
talked about out there was we're gonna put water over here.
We're gonna come back out and redo these blinds, and
we're gonna move this over here, and we're gonna we're
gonna get some trap some water over there for a
little while and then move it down here. And they're
thinking a year ahead. They're not even just talking about
this upcoming season. They're already talking about what they're gonna

(34:21):
do for twenty six, for winter of twenty six and
that season, and so they're they're they're buttoning up right
now everything that they're gonna have in place, and they're
David Pruitt doesn't have a problem at all with spending
money on water. If he has to buy water, he'll
buy water because his hunters come first. That's how he

(34:43):
stayed in business as a waterfowl outfitter for fifty years.
Fifty years, this guy has been getting up at the
crack of daunt, well way before the crack of dawn,
getting up making sure his people were out there where
they all belong. Now the beauty of his membership opportunity.
And that's, by the way, that's the only people who
get to hunt out there is members and guests. Members

(35:05):
and guests. That's it. And he's got a fantastic system
worked out where nobody really gets prefer rental treatment over
anybody else. You you lay in your first I think
it's first six choices in order for where you want
to hunt on the particular day, and then the evening
before there's a or some time in the afternoon before

(35:28):
I don't know the He can explain it better than
I can, but he gives everybody their assignment for the
next day. And all you have to do is is
plug that into your GPS and let your truck take
you to where you're gonna hunt. You already know it
if you if you got a spot picked out, you
know where you want to go. In any event, he's
he's he runs a very tight ship, a very clean ship,

(35:50):
and everything I've heard about him is that he knows
what he's doing and the numbers of ducks his hunters
per group. There's six people in a group. And here's
the deal, that the guest deal. If you have a
six man group and there's only three of you going
hunting the next morning, you can bring three guests. You
can put six people in that blind and just go
at it, go to town, have a blast, not gonna cost

(36:12):
you anything extras. Everything's set up as I probably would
set up a hunting operation if I had that time
in that inclination. I'm not that tough anymore. Those guys
are out there riding around on heavy equipment, dig in
holes and just everything from a shovel up to a bulldozer.
They're on it trying to make sure there's plenty of water,

(36:35):
plenty of food for the ducks that are coming down
this year, and plenty of places to put the hunters.
Riceland Waterfowl Club dot Com is the website. Go check
it out, get the tour I got, and you'll see
why I'm so enthusiastic about speaking for them. Riceland Waterfowl
Club dot Com seventy fifty one already darn near to

(36:56):
the top of the hour. First Down on the Dugpike
Show will be here on until ten o'clock, which not
coincidentally is when well it is kind of coincidental. That's
when Primo Doors opens up over there on North Post.
Jason Fortenberry, Uh, friend client and pretty good golfer as well.
Let's go talk to Alan, shall we? What's up allan

(37:17):
morning dog doing? I'm good?

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Thank you sound good? Hey? How much like you know,
early in the morning till season whatever, you get that
heavy sometimes you get a heavy miss it ain't really
raining and it's kind a heavy fog.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Oh yeah, that's what I had this morning at my house.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah, exactly. Does that type weather affect the shot?

Speaker 10 (37:42):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (37:42):
You know when just say you're you're out there maybe
a little further than normal. Does that kind of weather
affect the shot?

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Just the humidity in the air.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, yeah, stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
I don't think it. I don't think no, not perceptibly,
not that you'd notice. I really, I can't imagine fourteen
years of guiding. I shot in rain, I shot and missed.
I shot in twenty five degrees and I shot in
seventy five degrees and I don't remember at any time thinking,

(38:15):
oh man, you know, if only it weren't so damp
that it never crossed my mind.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yeah, I mean, I know, if it's like real windy,
I know that's that definitely affects your shot.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Window push a shot, you know, definitely. And you know
now that you bring it up, Alan, I've never heard
anybody talk about it. But if you in theory at
least there is if that shot is hitting resistance from
the moisture in the air, then it might slow it
down a little bit. But I don't think it would
be enough at thirty or forty yards to make a difference. Yeah,

(38:52):
you know, extreme range.

Speaker 6 (38:54):
Maybe, but.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, well, like the other morning, it was so hot
and human and I was just were just thinking, I
wonder if that, you know, effects what's that shell pells
come out of that burrow? I wonder if that changes anything.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, that's a really good question. That is a really
good one. I've never had that question before, and I've
been around shotguns for a long time.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, well, yeah, you one more questions. Sure,
I've got some. I've got some my dad's I got
some shells. I think my dad's had them since the seventies.
They're still pretty solid, you know, like sixes and fours
and twos or whatever. I'm assuming I can still use them.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
See them up and see what happens.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Man.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
I found some.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Stuff out in my waste them wasting stuff, so.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
You know I had I had some boxes in uh,
in my garage as a matter of fact, when I
went on the goose hunt two years ago. Uh down
there with with Mitchell at Oh gosh, I'll remember what
his outfit's name is because it's really good and I
don't want to I don't want to discredit him, but
Mitchell Holder and anyway, and I'll come up with it

(40:07):
and i'll say it later.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
But I found some stuff out in the garage that
it's like antique practically, but it was the right the
right size, non toxic shot that I wanted to shoot
at these geese. And rather than go buy boxes of it,
I just said, Okay, I'll take this stuff out and
see if it'll still go boom. And it still went boom,
No problem.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah, okay, all right, I sure appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
All right. Hell, it's great to hear from you that
I love that question. Yeah, I'm gonna write that down.
I'm gonna get an expert on the phone and we'll
find out. Thanks man, Yeah, I'm gonna call humidity. I
got to write this down. That is a good question,
and I've never, honestly, I've never been asked that question,
and I've never thought to ask it. I just I

(40:54):
just keep hunting, and I think I feel like it's
gonna be an easy enough question to answer, and within
normal hunting range, the answer is going to be no.
It really doesn't affect anything enough to put it in
your head. But clearly, if that shot is meeting resistance

(41:18):
coming out of the barrel, then it's got to be
slowed down just the teensiest, tiniest little bit. We'll find
out real quick. The bounties on hogs, I did some
research while while Rick and I were talking. I just
typed it in hog bounties in Texas, and there are
a lot of counties, if not all of them, that

(41:40):
actually have bounties on the hogs. But I kind of
agree with him that for five bucks or in some
cases ten dollars per year or tail, depending on the
county that might be, it might not be cost efficient
to go collect your your your tie, for your time

(42:00):
and your gasoline might not be cost efficient to do that.
Just take the time to clean a couple of good
ones and you'll have ten times more worth in fresh pork.
Or we could just import some of Columbia's hippos and
turn them out where there's a lot of hogs. Boy,
you talk about something of Hillbilly would turn a corner

(42:21):
and see and just go into shock to the Oh
my god, look at the size of that hog out there,
out there in that soybean field. Thing's going to weigh
two thousand pounds. Thank you. Who was that guy, Pablo Escobar?
I think he was the guy who brought all those
hogs into Colombia. At first. I'm sure there are several
others down there, but yeah, we have a problem with hogs.

(42:45):
They have a problem with hippopotamuses, and I think personally,
I'll take what we've got over that. All right, when
we come back, I'm going to and we're darned at
the top of the hour break here already, I'm going
to dive into of season because we're only five weeks out,
barely five weeks out, and there's I think you'll be

(43:07):
happy to hear what I've been reading and seeing and
I'll read straight out of some of it, and I'll
throw in my two cents worth on the rest of it.
We'll see where we go. Champions Tree Preservation run by
a father and son team. I love that kind of stuff,
I really do. This is like Jerry and JTK down
at Shooter's Corner. This is Champions Tree Preservation. That would

(43:30):
be Erwin and Robin Castellanos. Castillanos, I'm not sure. I'm
gonna have to ask them. Bottom line is they are
arborists and they know about trees far more than the
average person who knows a lot about anything else. Erwin
came to my house, came straight to my house all
the way from up in Champion, way up north side

(43:51):
of town, comes all the way down to sugar Land,
spent fifteen minutes walking around my yard with me and
explaining that planning to me. First of all, that I
don't need a lot of work done on my trees
to make them ready for hurricane season. They're doing just fine.
And I learned that the little branches that come off
the top of some of the big limbs that everybody

(44:12):
gets cut down to what Irwin and his son kind
of jokingly refer to as a lion's tail tree limb.
You know what that looks like. It looks like a
Q tip. Basically that's not good for the tree. That
stuff that grows off the top of that provides shade
for the bark of that big limb, and that shade

(44:32):
is important. Otherwise it's it's gonna get scorched in our
atmosphere in our summer heat. I learned so much from
them about what constitutes a healthy tree. What does all
my trees need, he said, is a little feeding. And
then to help a couple of thin spots in the yard,
all I need is a little a erification, aer ration, erification. Whatever.

(44:56):
They're gonna punch holes in the yard come February or
so for me, get them to your house, get your tree,
make sure your trees are ready. And if they're not,
if a tree actually has to come all the way out,
they own a tree farm, they'll replace the one that
has to go. All their own equipment. All just good,
solid people. Been in the tree business for thirty something years.

(45:17):
Family run business, great people. Two eight one three two
zero eighty two zero one two eight one three two
zero eighty two zero one or go to championstree dot
com championstree dot com eight o three on a Saturday morning.
You know, there's scattered this and scattered out there. I

(45:37):
was looking at the uh, let's see, here's that weather
and radar mat from the Weather Channel again. Let me
refresh this just before I get to Brandon real quickly,
we'll take a look and make sure that nothing unusual
has happened. Basically, what we're experiencing right now is kind
of the tail end of the storm that never was
really a storm, and it's gonna it's gonna hang around.

(46:01):
There's gonna be some scattered showers today. There's a bunch
of stuff up in East Texas, some pretty heavy stuff
up just south of Jasper and leading out basically from
Kingwood all the way up to wherever, all the way
over into north northwestern Louisiana. There's stuff off the coast

(46:21):
here as well. Let me see which way that stuff's
gonna try to go. It's trying to get up toward
Port Lavaka and might get some of it into Corpus.
They would welcome it. There's actually some rain for about
right in the middle of the day, a pretty good
chunk that's gonna roll over Corpus Christy, and they'll take
every drop they can get, so by tomorrow, it's probably

(46:43):
by this afternoon, all this stuff's gonna fizzle and go away. Brenda,
what's up?

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Man?

Speaker 8 (46:49):
Lot's going on, mister Pye carry this morning?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
You know I'm doing all right. I've almost made it
to a second cup of coffee, but I'll get that
in the next break.

Speaker 8 (46:58):
There you go, eat, going, put the gasoline in the engine. Yes, sir,
I've got a question. What is it going to take
for us to get the sharks situation?

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Shock?

Speaker 8 (47:11):
I've heard you say this before and I'll just repeat it,
the farrel hawk situation in our bass system? Which are
the sharks? What is it going to take for us
to keep taking them or doing in canse? They do
away with them, taking more of them out of the
system where our edible fish can survive.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
I don't think sharks are a major threat to speckle
trout or I don't think they're a threat to game fish.
I really don't. They're more they're more clean up, okay,
and they don't they ride around looking for dead stuff.
They're the street sweepers. They're the garbage men of the
Golf of Mexico or Gulf of America and every base

(47:57):
system there is. They Yeah, they're not near the threat
to say a ten inch speckled trout. Let's put that
fish in there the before a shark's gonna get it.
Either a big red fish or a big trout is
gonna get it. If it's gonna be eaten, it's probably
not gonna be eaten by a shark. I just don't

(48:18):
say that. Yeah, Now, now here's the deal. The reason
everybody complains about them is because once you hook that
speckled trout and it's flailing around out there and sending
out distress signals, if a shark picks up on that,
that's that's its trigger. That's that says, hey, that's a
dinner bell to a shark, and they'll certainly come around

(48:40):
and snatch that thing off, just clean cut right behind
the gills, take all the meat and leave you the
head and the teeth and that. Okay, yeah, we don't
need to do anything there. Sharks have so many problems
just trying to maintain a population. They're still around the world.
There's still a lot of shark finning going on, and

(49:04):
that really rubs me. The wrong way. I don't like that.

Speaker 8 (49:07):
Okay, well, okay, well, I guess I was just then.
I was just misinformed, is what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
No, no, there's all kinds of information out there, but
I don't think that sharks are responsible for taking out
game fish species. But they're an apex predator, but they
pray primarily on stuff that's easy to catch. Oh okay,

(49:34):
dead stuff.

Speaker 10 (49:35):
Okay, Well, thank you for answering my question.

Speaker 8 (49:38):
Thanks, and everybody in South Texas should be beaming because
this is ought to be the best dove quail deer
season by far, because they've had abundance of rain down there.
Of course, with that comes a lot of rattles.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Think, you know, there's a little good, a little bad,
and everything in the outdoors. If you can't you can't
step around rattlesnakes, just don't hunt in South Texas, you know, right, Yes, sir.

Speaker 8 (50:06):
But thank you for informing me. I didn't quite understand
all that.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, that's just that's my opinion. Thank you, Brandon. I
appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (50:13):
Man, Yes, sir, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Yeah, let's sit on sharks for a second, okay, because
there's a lot of people who weighed in the bays
and who weighed in the surf, and they get trout
taking off stringers, and they get trout that get hammered
when they're on the hook and fighting trying to get
them back in, and a bull shark will come by
and snatch them off the line. And that's just sharks

(50:39):
being sharks, praying on something that's in distress. They don't
I don't think that many, and I may be wrong,
and if I am wrong, somebody tell me. Somebody who
knows more than me tell me. But I think that
sharks play a very necessary role in keeping all the
dead stuff off the bottom. And sharks are if you

(51:04):
don't think they're garbage disposals disposal, I mean they are
the ultimate garbage pickup clean up people, not people, but
things in the sea. And if you don't believe it,
look up stomach contents of big sharks and you will
find in that photo gallery, that macabre photo gallery, things

(51:26):
that sharks have eaten. And there's almost nothing you can
name that's smaller than a garbage can lid that they
haven't found inside a shark, a big shark's stomach, license plates, tools,
you name it, you name it. If it can fit

(51:48):
in their mouth, they'll try to eat it. Ask anybody
who's run offshore fishing boats for a long, long, long
long time if their boat hasn't been checked out by sharks.
Big shark will come up behind a boat just drifting
or trolling or whatever and just trying to take a
bite out of the transom. Nah, this isn't good to eat.

(52:12):
They tend to bite first and determine whether it's a
food source or not later, and they get a really
bad reputation for that when they bite into a person
and let go because it doesn't taste like what they're
used to eating. And that's the very good news for

(52:34):
most victims of shark bites is that they're not killed
by the shark. They're just tested by the shark and
found to be not what they want. So yeah, I
have a kind of a fondness for sharks. I liked
I caught my share. That's a big tough fight, no

(52:55):
question about it. They're very strong animals, but they they're
also like every other animal species on the planet. They're
into conservation of energy, and the less energy they have
to exert to eat, the better for them. They don't
like to chase stuff down. They don't want to have
to chase stuff. That's why they pick on injured fish.

(53:17):
And in their minds, a fish on a hook is
an injured fish. It's not swimming normally. It's not going
to be able to get away like most of the
fish they tried to catch when they were younger and
smaller did. All right, let's shift gears to dub Well. Actually,
you know, Kyle Lee already already we are at this

(53:39):
next break. Holy cow, I think we're more or less
covered and done with hogs. Unless somebody else wants to
bring them up, that's perfectly fine. The humidity on the
shot shells, I'm gonna still I didn't get to have
didn't have a chance to make the phone call on
the last break, but I'll try to do it again
in this break, and then on the way out here,

(54:01):
I'm going to tell you about Belleville Meat Market, which
Rick was kind enough to mention just a little while ago,
being there on Highway thirty six, right in the middle
of Belleville. Belleville Meat Market has been down there forty
something years or out there forty something years. And the
reason they've been so successful and continue to be to
this day is because they also a family run business.

(54:22):
The Poffenberger family have just made sure that everybody who
walks through that door has access to some of the
most delicious things you'll ever put in your mouth. Smoke
sausage samples available daily in the store, a full menu
of pecan smoke barbecue daily ten am to seven pm,
every single day, all the size you can imagine, all

(54:44):
the traditional barbecue stuff is right there at Belleville Meat Market.
And that's kind of a reward to you and your
family for driving out there. You'd go out there and
on the way you talk about everything you want to
bring home from Belleville Meat Market. You make a big
old list, go in there, hand that list to somebody

(55:04):
behind the meat counter, and then take a few steps
to your left and get in line for your lunch
or dinner, whatever it is it's appropriate at that time.
All these delicious things they have out there, good having stuff,
pepper stuff, mushroomed little appetizers, stuffed pork tenders, the fantastic
main course, hamburger patties, backyard stuff, the hot dogs, the

(55:25):
original and the ones with the cheddar cheese. Then that
big chuck wagon patty, which is a half pounds of
beef with just the right seasoning and a ton of
cheddar cheese in it, and of course wild game processing
all year. Get out there and try all that stuff,
the grabbing ghost snack stuff too. The dry sauce is
the dry stick. I love dry stick. If you ever

(55:46):
have a bunch that you can't find a place for,
just drop it off here Belleville Meat Market. They're on
Highway thirty six, about fifteen minutes north of Cilia, fifteen
minutes south of Hempstead. If you can't get there for
some reason, and they're legitimate reasons, you can't drive all
the way to Belleville. But if you can't, you can
get almost anything in that store short of a half
a cow or something. Don't ship it straight to your door.

(56:08):
Put it in a big container that'll keep it fresh,
keep it frozen if it needs to be, and from
that point forward, as soon as you open the box,
you can just start eating. Belleville MeetMarket dot Com is
a website. Belleville MeetMarket dot Com eight eighteen on Sports
Talk seven ninety to Doug Pike Show, thank you for listening.
I really do appreciate that let's uh, let's go catch

(56:29):
fuck well. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
That's the phone number here seven one three two one
two five seven ninety And you can email me anytime
Doug Pike at iHeartMedia dot com, especially if you if
you run a business and you want to reach the
people I reach, just you don't have to call anybody else.
I'm uniquely positioned here where I can. I can take

(56:51):
care of you top to bottom on any kind of
a campaign you want. I've got clients. I carry a
small list of kind of elect clients, people who are
in my business and a few who are not in
involved in the outdoors or in senior stuff or whatever.
But it's a short list of people I like, people
I trust. And if you want to jump on and

(57:13):
see what we can do for you, I'd be happy
to help you. Just email me and we'll go over it.
Dougpike at iHeartMedia dot com. Tell you whatever, Tell all
these people. I'll never waste your time, and I'll never
waste your money. I know who's money we're talking about spending,
and I'll spend it wisely with you, not for you.
I'll spend it with you ed, what's up?

Speaker 6 (57:33):
Not much? How are you this morning?

Speaker 1 (57:35):
I'm very well, thank you good.

Speaker 6 (57:38):
Uh you had a question about humidity and chuck and shills.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Oh is that you had a rigging man that was fast?
Holy cow?

Speaker 11 (57:46):
Through me?

Speaker 6 (57:47):
That's okay.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Somebody asked a minute ago. I think it was Brandon
who asked about shot traveling in very dense, very heavy
humid air and whether or not that humidity can affect
like muscle velocity and well, not muzzle velocity, but downrange velocity.

Speaker 6 (58:08):
Yep, not at all.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
That's what I've That's what I said, and that's what
I have. My fingers crossed when I said it. I
didn't think so either not at hunting ranges or not
at target ranges anymore. Yeah.

Speaker 12 (58:17):
No, well, not at the usable usable velocities and distances
shotguns or used. I've shot in tournaments and pouring rain.
You can see the shot going through the rain. It's yeah,
it's fine.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Where did you have to shoot in that much rainhead?

Speaker 6 (58:36):
Holy cat? I don't even.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Remember, you don't want to remember.

Speaker 6 (58:40):
Probably not really.

Speaker 12 (58:43):
It's the only time humidity really affects us would be
very long term storage of shotgun shell older shotgun shells.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Especially paper shell Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 12 (58:56):
And you know that that will have some delitary effect
on them, but really nothing else will.

Speaker 11 (59:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
I remember when steel shot first came out and how
just dreadful it was. If it got even damp, and
oh my god, we had to start carrying. Eric Hilton
was the first one who did it, and we all
followed his lead, and then every guy on the prairie
followed his lead. He started carrying a three foot down rod,

(59:23):
a half inch three foot half inch dow rod. Just
jam those things back out of the barrel. Jam the
wadst you had.

Speaker 12 (59:29):
I mean there were there were, And actually the worst
part about it wasn't us.

Speaker 6 (59:35):
The worst part about it was what it did as
the birds. It was just not oh yeah, the dispatching
birds at all.

Speaker 12 (59:40):
And that that was when you just cripple everything and
watch sail off and it was just horrible stuff.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Yeah, it's it's better now, but not nearly like it was.
So what's the next big shoot coming up? An American?

Speaker 12 (59:53):
We're just kind of right now doing our monthly registered tournaments.

Speaker 5 (59:59):
Are you?

Speaker 1 (59:59):
Are you? The are the wing shooting areas that the
flying targets getting a little more busy these days, I
would imagine they have to be.

Speaker 12 (01:00:06):
Huh, yeah, they are hitched with some it's it's it's
doing well, it's steady. It's retracted some a few years
ago and it's been slowly building back.

Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
But yeah, we're healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
The thing that I don't understand is why the average
shotgun or what the average guy who hadn't picked up
his gun since last year. He goes out on opening
day and if he's got if he only had one
by he probably gonna have three boxes. But if he
only had one box of shells, how many doves? You
think he'd bring home? Four or five? You're more generous.

(01:00:42):
I had three fingers held up in the air. You're
more generous than Yeah, no, I watched so many they
come back with his five gallon bucket full of hull,
full of holes and three doves sitting on top of them.
You know, like, that's.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
Actually that's a pretty good average. I think nationwhy it's about.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Eight right, Yeah, that's that's exactly what it's and it
always has been because people don't think they need instruction
or don't think they'll gain enough from instruction, when in fact,
over the course of a couple of years. They probably
save them money.

Speaker 6 (01:01:14):
Oh, absolutely, and and that's solely changing.

Speaker 12 (01:01:17):
Americans have always been very reticent about receiving instruction, especially
shotgun instructions. We're kind of a nation of rifles, rifle shooters,
and we'll take rifle instruction. But now with the with
the growth of sporting plays and so many tens of
thousands of youth shooting programs, and there's so much good.

Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
Instruction out there. Every everybody's getting better.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Hey, you mentioned youth shooting programs. Tell me a little
bit more about what's out there that I don't know about.

Speaker 12 (01:01:48):
There's not to be honest there, Well, there's someone around
he probably the best one around here is kind of
centered out at Greater Houston.

Speaker 6 (01:02:00):
Ron ron Ingalls runs it.

Speaker 12 (01:02:03):
And it's the Houston Select Shooting Programs.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
They do real real guys, real shooting.

Speaker 12 (01:02:11):
Huh oh yeah, yeah, they're He's got a couple of
hundred kids under his wing and they they pay their
parents pay two three hundred bucks a month each and
they get a lot of personalized instruction and uh, they're
they're all kids that want to get in the competitive

(01:02:35):
sport of sporting plays and get better, better, and they are.
They're getting they're getting real good, and they'll go different
areas of the state, in different areas of the country
and compete. And it's uh in the up in the
in the Midwest, it's all trap shooting.

Speaker 6 (01:02:49):
They're huge, huge, aha trap shooters up there.

Speaker 12 (01:02:53):
The youth shoots up there that uh they'll run ten
days and have like five thousand kids in them.

Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
Oh my god, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
I mean, I was. I was just about to say
this sounds like travel ball for shotguns. But no, I
don't know that I've ever been to a five thousand
kid tournament.

Speaker 6 (01:03:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:03:10):
I don't think I have. I've been to some big ones,
but yeah, forty closes. The are very healthy, so pretty much.
And part of the reason why we don't do any
of the bigger tournaments anymore is we really don't have
I know, it sounds silly, but we don't really have
the facilities for it. Because most of the bigger tournaments
now will have anywhere from five hundred to one thousand competitors. Yeah,

(01:03:33):
and they they require that the facilities have RV spots
and bathrooms and all kinds of.

Speaker 6 (01:03:42):
We just don't do over there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
You I don't know that it would be worth the
investment to put it in, would it.

Speaker 6 (01:03:50):
Maybe it takes a long time. Yeah, yeah, it takes
a long long time.

Speaker 12 (01:03:55):
So there are venues around the country that that do
a lot of that, and.

Speaker 6 (01:03:59):
They do a very very good job of it. We
just were our.

Speaker 12 (01:04:04):
Niche is kind of our growing our local shooters with
our monthly tournaments, and we do a good job of that,
and we're more of a feeder system. Okay, major tournaments
and we're fine with that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
God had a riga here from American shooting Centers. I
don't get you on the phone very often, so I'm
going to hang on to you for a minute. What's
the biggest, biggest mistake dove hunters make that they could
correct the most easily to make them better shooters.

Speaker 6 (01:04:32):
Stop looking at the end of the gun?

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Yeah yeah, yep.

Speaker 6 (01:04:36):
Stop looking at the bead is not a site, yeah,
not like a front side of a rifle. You don't
use it to align with whatever you're shooting at.

Speaker 12 (01:04:46):
A shotgun is shot the same way a baseball bat
is swung, and that means you're never really you never
really look at the bat.

Speaker 6 (01:04:54):
You just look at the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
That's a really good way to put it. I haven't
I've never heard that from you or anybody else, but
that's exactly well.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
Yeah, then there's a there's a good little nugget for you.

Speaker 12 (01:05:05):
The shotgun shooting is identical to two other sports, and
it's gonna sound a little bit weird, but the two
other sports that shotgun shooting is identical to are tennis
and baseball, because in tennis and baseball and shotgun shooting,
you're asking your body to do the exact same task,

(01:05:26):
and what that task is is to see a moving
object in three dimensions and intercept that object with your
hand eye coordination. A tennis player has to learn to
see if a tennis ball is coming over the net
with top spinner side skin. It's the only way you
can ever learn where it's gonna bounce to. Baseball player

(01:05:47):
can only hit well if they learn to see the
stitches of the color stamp on the ball.

Speaker 6 (01:05:55):
What happens is when you when you.

Speaker 12 (01:05:57):
See when you're looking hard to see the stitches, a
very real occurrence happens in your brain, which is called
hard focus. And when you hard focus on a moving object,
two very real things happen inside your brain, it slows
down and it grows in size in your mind's eye.

Speaker 6 (01:06:15):
Yes, if you.

Speaker 12 (01:06:16):
Ask the professional baseball coach, you know, he'll he'll tell
one of his players, man, you're really hitting good this week.
And the guys just gonna tell them say, I don't know.
They just look big right now.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Yeah, yeah and slow.

Speaker 12 (01:06:29):
That's yeah, big, big and slow. And when we're shooting, well,
everything we look at is big and slow.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 12 (01:06:39):
We learned that we don't have stitches, but our targets
have corners, edges, top, bottom, shiny spots from the sun reflection.
We learn to look at different spots on the target,
not the whole target as a whole, and it refines
your vision.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
That's you could not have said it better. And I
hope everybody who's listening to us right now realizes that
this is why you need to go take a few lessons,
because come out there and get lessons from a professional instructor,
even three or four times will give you so much
information that you can then go practice and have good practice,

(01:07:17):
which is going to make you better. When I learned
this method you're talking about right now, I went into it.
I went into it kind of hardheaded. I've been shooting
competitively for most of my life. I've been shooting as
a guide forever, sweeping up after people who couldn't shoot.
And I thought, there's no way that I'm going to
learn anything new with this, And all of a sudden,

(01:07:38):
is suit it, Like holy cow. I didn't know those
doves were flying that slow. I didn't know they could
be that big. And it's all of a sudden. Instead
of trying to hit a bebee being raced out of
an airplane, you're looking at a You're looking at a
refrigerator falling out of the back of a truck. And yeah,

(01:07:59):
it's it's fascinating, it really is.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
Ed.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
I'm so glad I got you on the phone this morning.
Thank you man.

Speaker 6 (01:08:05):
No, it's fun to see when the light goes off.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I watched it with my son. I
watched it happen all of a sudden. Yeah, So thank
you man, Thank you very much, Dariggy, my pleasure, all right,
Oh anytime, Yeah, thank you, bye bye.

Speaker 6 (01:08:21):
Talk.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
Well there you have it, right out of the horse's mouth.
This guy, Edariggy owns American shooting centers. If you didn't
know it, and He has been out there for I
don't know, ten twelve years now, maybe more, and he's
just made it better and better. And he's one of
the best instructors I've ever been around, and would happily

(01:08:44):
he and or anybody really on his staff who's involved
in teaching shotgunning is going to teach that method. And
believe me, it will change the way you shoot, and
it will change the number of targets you hit. You'll
go from seven or eight ship a bird to maybe
maybe three or four really quickly, and then with good

(01:09:06):
practice and repetition of the right motions and the right
site plane, you'll get better and better. Yeah, it's fun,
it really is. I gotta get out there. I'm gonna
take my buddy Rob Logan out there pretty soon, and
I'm pretty sure we're gonna have a really, really good time.

(01:09:26):
I'm gonna go back to golf for a second black
Horse black Horse Golf Club. Take two ninety out to
Fry Road, hanging south, go down about two three miles.
You'll see golf course on the right hand side of
the road. We must be getting close. You'll see the
entrance to a neighborhood that's got a big old black
horse out there, carved into stone or whatever, and I

(01:09:48):
think it does say black Horse Estates or something like that.
A little farther south, you'll see golf course on both
sides of the road. As soon as you do put
on your west blinker. That'll be your right. If you're
headed south and you don't know much about a compass,
take that right, and from that point forward, anybody and
everybody you see who's wearing a name tag is there

(01:10:10):
to make sure you have a good time. The instructional
facility at Black Horses at the very far end of
the very generous practice range. You'll have to actually drive
around the facility to get down there, but you'll be
glad you did if you need help with your golf swing.
We've got two courses, the North course in the South.
The North still a daily fee course as it always

(01:10:33):
has been. The South was taking private this year, and
there are membership options that can get you all kinds
of access to all kinds of goodies they have in
addition to just that South course, the Pinnacle. The top option,
of course would be to get that full full private membership,
which gets you access also not just to two courses

(01:10:55):
at Black Course, but also to the two courses at
Golf Club of Houston and to Blackhawk Country Club out
in Richmond. That's where I play mostly. Black Horse Golf
Club dot Com is the website they got. They got
a new chef out there this year, they got a
new golf pro this year, and they're just getting bigger

(01:11:16):
and better under the guidance of Craig Hicks, the general
manager out there. Great guy, great outdoors guy too. He
loves to hunt and fish. Talk to him about that.
Black Horse Golf Club dot com. You make yourself tea
time right now, black Horse goolf Club dot com. Hey
thirty seven on Sports Talk seven to ninety, we have
kind of turned second and headed toward third. Be a

(01:11:38):
little man. Yeah, we're headed towards there. We're not quite
there yet. I got an email for Bonnie Joe and
I let Brett know that you guys are enjoying his
musical selections this morning while Frankie is where did he
go again, Brett? He went to I want to say Minnesota.
He's going to a John Williams concert and that would
be the Star Wars Summers guy.

Speaker 13 (01:11:59):
Yeah and stuff, Superman and Durstic Art like literally everything, anytime, anywhere.
So I would love to go myself, but I think
he's maybe not going to be there, so I don't
know what he's going to see.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Honestly, Well, he's going to listen to a Philharmonic orchestra.
I would imagine play those and there he mentioned some
original composition, more recent, something new that this guy is composed.
He is the contemporary Bock Beethoven handle all of them.

Speaker 4 (01:12:31):
Oh, he is definitely Tchaikovsky, the model, Like I don't
think model can appreciate the true extent to what he
has done to like the movie landscape theme wise, it's
it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Yeah, that music makes a movie. And if you don't
believe that there, I think there are places where you
can get movies where you can just watch them without
the actual musical track. You can't watch them without sound,
It makes no sense. But just let the actors and
actresses deliver their lines but with no music in the
background whatsoever. And it really it just destroys a good

(01:13:07):
film because the music is so important and it guides you.
Music is your guide to a movie. It lets you
know when there's something coming up that you really want
to pay attention to, and it also, either in its
absence or in just in lesser intensity, says Okay, we

(01:13:28):
can kind of breathe now and make it through this.
Here's a guy who's about as intense as they get
when it comes to lake fishing, and that would be
mister faux pro Forrest. What's up, buddy?

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
No, let this hol get by the house here? Oh,
I should say.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
Oh my word, where are you hit the house?

Speaker 14 (01:13:47):
Yeah, I'm sitting on a front porch. A marchin bay
in my existence.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Again, they marching through your yard pretty close.

Speaker 6 (01:13:53):
I mean, I at too far from the street.

Speaker 14 (01:13:55):
I can and flip a jig out there and hit
my neighbors fence across the streets.

Speaker 6 (01:13:59):
Holy cow, But not quite that close.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
So what's up?

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
Ah?

Speaker 14 (01:14:04):
Not much, man, I've said. After after the wonderful fishing
experience I had yesterday when I was talking to you
on the phone, I resulted to trying to snag harp
with the trouble I broke off.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
That's a new load for you, man. I know, I
finally got broke off by one.

Speaker 14 (01:14:18):
I figured, you know, this is a sign that it's
too hot and this is not fun anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
Well, carry part I think is that that's part of
you're not your first time trying to do that. You're
probably right on that, you know, think about the armor
they carry though, it's gonna be hard to get up
a trouble hook through those scales.

Speaker 14 (01:14:35):
Oh yeah, I come back to the scale of time
or two and that's all I came back with. Yes, okay,
it was fun til the sun came out that I
was in that I'm not young.

Speaker 6 (01:14:43):
At tough like I was back in the day.

Speaker 14 (01:14:44):
It's tough to go with it, yes, sir, But y'all
been talking about shotgun shows this morning, so I would
I would, I would change the dial.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
But before I get to that, I do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
Want, just for sake of conversation real.

Speaker 14 (01:14:57):
Quickly, I do want to apologize you and to your
listeners because I do occasionally get a little colorful and
and and I bleed into that Fiji thing and I
and I endeavor endeavored to not do that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
Don't occasionally slip, you know, if it happens, we we
have ways to take care of it. And I won't
beat you up. We we take care of it on
this end, thank goodness.

Speaker 12 (01:15:21):
We can.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
But yeah, it's usually it's it's enthusiasm, and I get it.
Like I said, I'm I'm the next word that slips
out of my mouth won't be the first. But I
don't do it around kids. There's just no yea.

Speaker 14 (01:15:33):
I don't think I'll ever be like a collar you
had here a week or two ago. You had to like, okay, click, yeah,
I'll never get off of the tangent like that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
That's good. Well, so what else? What about shotgun shells?

Speaker 14 (01:15:44):
So quick shotgun shells story, I guess since y'are talking
about humidity and stuff like that. So this is many
and many moons to go on to the south shoreline
and the pit line of matter, go to bay.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
He's to go to bay.

Speaker 14 (01:15:54):
So me and my buddy out there. We went up
the night before, you know, got all stuff together. He
had a place right there in Chinkapan, right by the
bowe and uh.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
So we're out there hunting.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
First ball.

Speaker 14 (01:16:04):
He comes in there, he pulls up to and I
want to say it was either a single single widget
or a single pintail. He stands up to pop it
boom like a percussion you ain't heard lately. Yeah, eject
ejected him to the back of the back of the blind.
He's like, man, what what was that? And he looked
up at the end of his barrel was split. We

(01:16:25):
used to use the old age seventies. And I said, man,
what happened? So what you know?

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
What do you?

Speaker 6 (01:16:29):
What do you?

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
He was, Man, he goes, I got up.

Speaker 14 (01:16:31):
Here trying to save some money, and I had a
box of shells in the cabin from last year. And
he cut the next couple of shells open and that
steel shot had welded into a slug.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
Just rust into it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:44):
Huh into a slug.

Speaker 14 (01:16:46):
And I was like, dude, I said, so he's see
it up shooting half of my shells that morning. I said,
you can't leave that stuff down there on the coast.

Speaker 6 (01:16:52):
You ought to know better.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
He's really really lucky. Yeah, unless you've got some sort
of humidity controlled sealable box like you could probably you
could probably shut them into like a nig Blue cooler
or something like that and and tape the edges and
keep the salt out of there and the moisture. But
otherwise a year sitting down on the bay, that's that's

(01:17:14):
pretty rough with steel in it.

Speaker 14 (01:17:17):
And the coolest thing he does is that him it
is a because he got his whole family hunts down there, right,
So the coolest thing they do at the end of
the year they go to a pawn shop every year
and get a get an old eight seventy off the
shelf at some local pawnshop he goes to and uh,
they don't clean. All they clean is inside of these
guns at the end of the season. These guns are
orange and they got a GPS spot out East Matagorda Bay.

(01:17:41):
There's probably fifty eight seventies they get the crowd off
of Holy they made it. They made an eight to
seventy reef out there. I don't have the waypoints yet,
but he's got an eight seventy.

Speaker 6 (01:17:49):
Loaf out there.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Catch you.

Speaker 14 (01:17:51):
There's probably fifty sh him and his whole family. They
don't want to tear up their good guns. They just
fa dove hunting and stuff like that. So they just
made make seventy reef out there.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
Yeah, once the insides are cleaned on them. They were
just back when I was guiding. I mean, at least
ninety percent of the guys I worked with shot eight
seventies and it was probably when the hunters came out.
They were on the eleven hundreds. Ey boy, they liked
that semi auto gun. And honestly, I had more eleven

(01:18:23):
hundreds go down in the spread in goose spreads than
any other gun. And when I actually wrote a letter
to Remington, and this is back when I was kind
of new at the paper, but I was still guiding,
and I said, look, I'm out there every day, every
single day, and dove hunting, duck hunting, goose hunting, and

(01:18:44):
overwhelmingly the first gun that's gonna go down in my
spread is going to be an eleven hundred. Is there
something you guys can do, something you can check to
make sure that that's as good as you can make
that gun? And they sent me back a letter to
blame the hunters for not cleaning their guns. And these

(01:19:04):
were guys who they only hunted maybe once or twice
a year and the other fifty weekends. They were obsessed
with it all. They cleaned their gun about like once
a month, twice a month, just to get out in
the garage and do it and have something some connection
to that shotgun until hunting season came along again. And
immediately Remings just said, no, it's that's the most popular

(01:19:27):
best selling shotgun. In America and we're not doing anything
to it. And I said, okay, and all of a sudden,
all these other brands start coming along. But now he's
started coming out and everybody else who's got him out
there now with really good quality shotguns. And I think
honestly that hurt Remington's sales of eleven hundreds. I know
they're still super popular. I may or may not have No,

(01:19:48):
I think I ditched my twenty gauge eleven hundred a
little while back. I can't remember.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
Yeah, twelve gauge.

Speaker 14 (01:19:55):
It's twenty sixtitch improved soildre I do with and sure
I've never had an issue with. But you know, you
go saltwater fishing, I take always take a pump, and
my guys, that has that reef out there, And you
and I are of the age that you'll understand this.
Every gun out there is an original old school wing Master.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
Yeah, not the same as what they built. Yeah, the
new Express is a different gun, and even the new
wing Master is a different gun. But yeah, that we
all had wing Masters, and we all just we used
them for pry bars and boat paddles and whatever whatever
you needed to do with that gun. It would do,
and and we all had them, they all worked, and
you're eleven hundred just fine for dove dove hunting. I

(01:20:35):
don't think bothers these guns as much, but that prairie,
that prairie just ate them up. It did.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
Man, Oh yeah for sure.

Speaker 14 (01:20:42):
And I think this might be an interesting topic of
the it's all before we get out of here. An
eight seventy original eight seventy wing Master is the only
gun that I can think of, and maybe you could
think of one that I could ask somebody talk in
front of me with my eyes closed and tell you
that's an eight seventy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Yeah, Yeah, that's fun. It had the it's got those
dual slide bars, the dual slide bars, and that's that's
what made it so reliable too, because most of the
other most of the other pump guns just have the one,
and that just it just sounds different on that. We
got to check out for us.

Speaker 6 (01:21:17):
Yes, sir, yes, sir go It's fun to talk to you, boss.

Speaker 1 (01:21:19):
Always a pleasure, my friend. See you you bet audios
all right, got to jump to this break kick here
pretty quickly before yeah, before Brett realizes how late I am.
Champions Tree preservation. That is, Irwin and Robin Costellanos been
in business as a father and son team. I guess

(01:21:41):
since Robin was old enough to jump on a truck
and come help his dad out. And now the two
of them ride all over town every day looking at
people's trees. They're both Arborius certified arbius who will come
to your house and do the same thing that Erwin
did for me this past week. Come out, check my trees.
Everything looks pretty good. And then he taught me about

(01:22:03):
how to trim, how to feed, how to do this,
how to do that. And I know that I also
need to verify my yard, probably in February, maybe March,
as the growing season starts. All of these things were
All of that information was made available to me very
quickly by a guy who looks at trees for a living,

(01:22:25):
as opposed to some dude driving around in a truck
with a chainsaw and a ladder. If you want quality,
professional work done on the trees in your yard, starting
with making sure that they're ready to withstand a hurricane
if we get one, Heaven forbid, get Champions Tree to
come out and take care of your trees in your yard.

(01:22:46):
They'll once you're kind of in the family, then it
just rolls all the time. They're always if they're in
the area, they're going to come by your house. If
they see something you need to know about, they'll let
you know. They've been doing this thirty something years and
they're very good at what they do. I certainly trusted
him to come in my yard and tell me, and
I was ready to have some work done. He said, no, no, no,

(01:23:06):
your trees look great, they're fine. Don't worry about them.
I also learned, and this is super important, not to
overwater trees. He said. Anytime he sees a front bed
that wraps around a tree and there's all kinds of
plants in it, that's a dead ringer. Sure shot that
somebody is overwatering that tree to keep all those plants alive.

(01:23:28):
Very interesting, very interesting man to talk to. And he'll
tell you everything he sees in your yard when he
comes out there. Everything he sees, it's good. Everything he
sees it needs a little work. Champions tree Preservation, call him,
get a consultation two eight one three two zero eighty
two zero one two eight one three two zero eighty

(01:23:49):
two zero one, or go to the website very easy.
Championstree dot com eighty's fifty four already, Oh my gosh.
On Sports Talk seven ninety. I have enjoyed the visits
we've had with all my listeners. Anybody who calls here
is welcome here. Like I said, you don't curse, you

(01:24:09):
don't scream. We're gonna get along just fine. You don't
have to agree with me. You never have to agree
with me. You really don't, uh and will agree to disagree,
but we'll still share a love of the outdoors, if
that makes sense. I know a lot of people who
who have spouses who don't like the outdoors for one
reason or another. There was some somebody I saw the

(01:24:31):
other day on a little reel whose whose spouse was
just beside herself because she had opened up a drawer
or something and there was what she called a giant
spider in there. And the spider, it turned out, was
about the size of a nickel. But to someone who

(01:24:55):
doesn't like spiders, that's a giant spider. And that's just
the way it is, okay, anybody's interpretation of something. If
something scares you, then you don't have to you don't
have to not be scared of it. Just don't scream
out loud like somebody's broken into the house. That didn't

(01:25:15):
happen at my house. By the way, I'm just thinking
off the hip. One thing, when when I was talking
just a minute ago with Faux Pro about hunting down
along the coast in pit blinds, there were a lot
of pit blinds. And I know there's pit blinds everywhere
on the prairie, there's pit blinds. Anywhere there's duck hunting,
there's pit blinds, and pretty much also anywhere there are

(01:25:39):
pit blinds, they're gonna be snakes. And for the longest
time I couldn't really figure out why people were finding
so many snakes in their blinds when they'd get to
them and you bring your flashlight and make a good
look around in there. I agree with that, But if
you've built your pit blind so that snake don't have

(01:26:00):
anything they can grab onto and crawl out of at
just the least little bit of an angle other than
vertically up a dirt wall or a wood wall, if
you fancied up and put plywood in there and all
of that stuff, the snakes they're not going to have
a way to get out once they fall in there
or go in there, and you're gonna end up finding

(01:26:24):
them and not really just really not wanting to be
where they are, because they're going to be mad to
begin with. There's a couple of ways you can give
them just a little easy out, and one is just
any kind of something that they can climb up. I
know a guy who used to take that lattice, just
wooden lattice work that you can buy that most people

(01:26:46):
put out on the back fence and let roses climb
up at or tomatovines or whatever. But you can just
cut a piece of that a foot wide, maybe eighteen
inches wide, and just enough to get about two or
three inches above the top of the blind, and just
set it in there, put some weight at the bottom
of it so that if something does get on it

(01:27:07):
and try to and you can anchor it at the
top too easily. Just anybody who's got any kind of
a guy over in him can figure out how to
anchor that too, the wooden side of a of a
duck blind. But just give a snake something to crawl
out on, and you're gonna see fewer of them in there,
you really are, because even if they come in there
to eat a rat or something that fell in there.

(01:27:29):
Then they can at least get out after they're done.
But if it's just a slick sidewalls, you're gonna have
a hard time getting those critters out of there, the
ones you don't don't want in there for sure.

Speaker 11 (01:27:42):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
And by the way, I've been watching a site. I
can't remember what it's called exactly, but I've been looking
at a site. Let him know, ask him to hold,
and let's talk at the very tip top of front
end unless he's got something real quick. That's my buddy,
Robbie Granger. I'll get you know what, Go ahead, and Tim,
I think I can do this. We'll see, we'll see

(01:28:05):
maybe maybe not. He might want to hold. I'll tell
you what. Let's do that. We're gonna go ahead and
go to this break. We'll get that done and that
way I can get back to Robbie faster on the
other side, and then we'll talk a little bit of golf.
There's not a whole lot going on in the world,
a big time golf with the end of the majors
for the season. But I'll get to the tournament that's

(01:28:27):
going on anyway, and there's a couple of familiar names
in it. On the way out. American Shooting Center. We
just had that great conversation with Edrigi, and I'm so
glad he was able to call and settle up some
of that stuff. American Shooting Centers is the largest non
military shooting facility in the entire state of Texas, which
made it amazing to me that he's able to He

(01:28:50):
does what he does, he hosts some really good quality Well,
if you want to be a good Sporting Clays guy,
go out there and compete against the guys he's got
coming to these monthly shoots. If you just want to
get better at shooting your shotgun, go ahead and get
some instruction from one of their instructors and get them
to teach you what I got taught a few years

(01:29:11):
ago now several years ago now about slowing everything down,
making the targets look bigger and slower, which makes them
so much easier to hit. Once you learn that system, it's, frankly,
it's almost hard to miss once you learn it, and
once you get your old school thinking whatever somebody taught
you twenty five years ago about how to shoot. If

(01:29:32):
you can get that out of your head and replace it.
You'll be great. They've got ten trap and skeet fields,
they've got three sporting places courses, they've got a beginner's
wing shooting area. There is a pop up silhouette rim
fire range that goes from about I think twenty twenty
five yards all the way out to two hundred and
fifty yards, and then the rifle and pistol rifle goes

(01:29:53):
out to six hundred yards pistol all the way back
into five yards and instruction in every shooting discipline. A
very safe, very fun place to shoot. You will be
offered help if you need it for anything that's going
on out there along the range, all on the firing line,
and everybody's gonna keep an eye on everybody else to

(01:30:14):
make sure it's a good, safe experience. American Shootingcenters dot Com.
You'll save yourself a whole lot of money if you'll
get a little bit of shooting instruction before the season starts.
American Shooting Centers West Timber Parkway between Katie and Highway six.
American Shooting Centers dot Com, nine o'clock, third and five hour.

(01:30:34):
This day's program starts right now, very quickly before I
get to my buddy Robbie. Look at it this afternoon,
around somewhere between probably about one and three o'clock, maybe
stretching out to four, there are gonna be some pop
up showers pretty much from if if this holds exactly true,
pretty much from say, downtown Houston, all the way down

(01:30:58):
south of Corpus CHRISTI and all the way Inland up
past Brenham. Well, that's gonna take in Robbie, a little
bit where else pleasanton, just just that whole chunk of
not quite South Texas but almost, and then all the
way up just there's just little orange and yellow dots

(01:31:18):
all over. It looks like if orange and yellow dots
were measles. Then most of southeast Texas, much of the
coastal South Texas area, which is great for them, and
then all the way over to a big old chunk
of Louisiana they got the pox, and we're gonna get
a little rain this afternoon. Other than that, I think
that's gonna be about the end of it by this evening. Hey,

(01:31:41):
Robbie Grangeer, what's going on? Man?

Speaker 11 (01:31:43):
Oh, not see much, Doug. Thank you for taking my call. Hey,
I just just listening in a little bit and there's
some gun talk going on in the last hour.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
Yeah, and if it's.

Speaker 11 (01:31:52):
Still still subject matters brand. We deal with a lot
of shotguns, as we do, I suppose if they tested
many of them, and what we found with the volume
that we're shooting in Argentina. We're very fond of the
Bnel e M two. That thing is a workhorse. It's
low recoil because it's inertia and it you know, they

(01:32:13):
all break when you shoot. The number of rounds that
we put through guns, but it's generally the same parts
and they're very easy to replace.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
But that that them two we're very fond of.

Speaker 11 (01:32:24):
And we've gone through a lot of different guns through
the years trying to trying to find one that lasts.
And on the over and other side, you know, we
just were very fond of the Silver Pigeon. It holds together.
The extractor ejector systems last a long time. That's usually
where things fail on that gun. That the headspace might
stretch out a little bit after a lot of shooting,

(01:32:46):
but that's that's pretty easy fixed.

Speaker 1 (01:32:48):
Well, let's let's talk about what you consider lots of shooting.
So people understand that it's going to be a whole
lot more rounds than they're likely to shoot if they're
just dove hunting around here every day.

Speaker 2 (01:32:59):
Well, in the course of a year.

Speaker 11 (01:33:01):
You know, it's not exact, but we will fire about
a million, two hundred and fifty thousand rounds through fifty guns,
so you could do them now. They all don't get
shot equally, but but you know, there's some that are
maybe shorter length to pull or longer guns that maybe
don't that are maybe non standard length, they don't get
shot quite as much. But the workhorses, you know, I

(01:33:23):
don't know they'll get fifty sixty seventy thousand rounds put
through them.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
That's crazy and it's uh.

Speaker 11 (01:33:29):
And obviously keeping the darn things clean, is we that
we I got strip clean those guns twice a day
at lunch and after the afternoon.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
Twice a day. Yeah, you know it has it. Yeah,
you have to because you're putting three four hundred rounds
maybe through them in a hunt. And that's that's a.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
Lot more and sometimes and sometimes more.

Speaker 11 (01:33:52):
And if you just get a little bit of if
you get a little bit of grit in there, it's
just saying it's just gonna work things, it's gonna wear
things out. So they're they I mean, we have to
keep them clean and and operational. The guns down there
for us, by the time the duties and things like
that are paid, are roughly three times the cost of
a gun here in the States, so you know, and

(01:34:14):
when you have fifty to sixty of them, that's yeah,
that's an inventory. So it's vital that they that, you know,
cleaning is we'll solve a lot of problems. Sure, and
and then but I just wanted to pipe in on
that M two's and it's light, it's light recoil, and
you know, we shoot lighter loads, particularly on the Dove

(01:34:34):
and some of these shotguns. Now if the loads are
too light, they won't cycle. We haven't really had that
problem with the M two. It seems to work just
fine from a cycling standard.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
What was that gun? What's that gun retail for here?

Speaker 11 (01:34:49):
You know, I I this is a kind of a
staff guess I really, I'm I don't know, twelve hundred
and thirteen hundred bucks. I'm not exactly sure. And it's
about three times that much the time we get them
into Argentina because of duties and they're not coming from
the States, They're coming from elsewhere. It's it's it's weird
how the gun the gun world works. I mean, might

(01:35:10):
have been made here, but it goes to Italy, then
circles back around and comes to us.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
It's weird. But that's just the way it is.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
That's all right. However it is it is. What's the Yeah,
there was another question I wanted to ask you about
that gun. I'll think of it right after you hang up.
Don't worry.

Speaker 11 (01:35:26):
I understand. Well, you know, it's inertia, which is nice.
I mean there's less uh, you know, you know, the
the gas guns are great, I mean uh, and and
some of them will take a lot of a lot
of rounds put through them. I like the inertia just
it's it's less, you know. I just like them. And
I'm not a and as you know me, I'm not

(01:35:46):
necessarily a gun. It's a tool for me. I just
want something that work, that works, that fits me, and
and I can put it in a lot of different hands.

Speaker 7 (01:35:55):
And uh.

Speaker 11 (01:35:56):
The stocks are easy to interchange. People if they have
a particular length of pull up, particularly women and children,
they can bring their store. They could bring their stock
down in their baggage.

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
It's not a goal a piece of water. It's a
piece of water.

Speaker 11 (01:36:07):
It's a piece of water plastic, So they don't even
they don't even have to declare it. And then when
they get to the lodge, we can take our stock off,
put theirs on, uh, and the lake the pool will
be what they're used to.

Speaker 1 (01:36:17):
Wasn't that nice? Would you? Would you consider that gun
kind of the the contemporary eight seventy wing Master?

Speaker 15 (01:36:24):
Yeah, I think so so well, yeah kind of yeah, yeah,
I mean, I mean some of those older guns, I
mean they were built with and and and again I'm
not a gunsmith, and I'm not a gun nut.

Speaker 1 (01:36:35):
I just I love guns.

Speaker 11 (01:36:36):
They're necessarily for my fun and for my business. But
the older guns had more metal in them than newer
ones have more plastic polymers, things that things that break. Yeah,
but the but the average shooter today, unless you're a
big you know, sporting places guy or someone who's out
at you know, shooting, you know a lot of skied

(01:36:57):
each week, the average sheeters you know, they it's I
bet you they don't put ten boxes through or a
gun in a year. Yeah, you know, which is you know,
and God like that. If you take care of the
last generations.

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
No doubt, no doubt mine, man, mine don't boy, my
old my one of my well, the gun I just
I take. I take it because it's got significant personal
value to me. A gun that's got a du sticker
on both sides of the stock that I put on
there probably thirty years ago, and they've been so they've
been in the sun so many times that the colors

(01:37:32):
all faded out of the stickers. And it's just it's
just this beat up whole thing. The stock is kind
of loose. I don't care how many times you try
to tighten it with a screwdriver, is not getting any tighter.
And it's just it's just a gun that has a
lot of memories in it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
And I like sh yeah, and guns, Steve have memories.

Speaker 11 (01:37:51):
I mean, I don't shoot it very often, but I'll
pull it out every now and then. My mother, who
was quite a wing shooter, she was gifted, uh, the
old Remington built off the Browning.

Speaker 2 (01:38:02):
A five patent.

Speaker 11 (01:38:03):
Yeah, yeah, that gun was probably that gun was probably
made in the thirties, you know, so it's nearly one
hundred years old. And I'll pull it out every now
and then and shot it. Just run it for giggles
and gram sure it's it still works and it's basically original.

Speaker 9 (01:38:17):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
That's what a good gun. It's a tool, just like
you said. A it's not a museum piece. It's a tool.
And if you use it correctly, if you're going to
use a power saw, a chainsaw, anything like that, it's
a tool that has to be oil. It has to
be cleaned to keep working. And as long as you
do that, it will last generations, just like you said.

Speaker 11 (01:38:40):
And guns are personal, you know, yeah, guns are personal.
Some people want to have a you know, I know
people have have very very nice shotguns.

Speaker 2 (01:38:47):
I have some very nice shotguns. But it is a tool.

Speaker 11 (01:38:51):
And I tell people if you buy a shotgun, you know,
a field grade gun, the first thing you should do
is just go drag it across the bob bar fence,
get that scratch on it, get behind you.

Speaker 2 (01:39:01):
I like, I don't like buying a new car.

Speaker 11 (01:39:04):
I mean, you know, you get a scratch on your
brand new car, you know which is going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:39:09):
Just just go scratch it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:11):
That shopping center door. Bang man, Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:39:15):
The end of the world, so, but I mean they
are to have a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
Yeah, thank you, Robbie. It's great to hear from you, buddy.
I'll see it audios all right, good heavens. I got
to take a break. While I'm in that break, I'm
gonna take a look at what j TK just sent me.
I bet it's going to be pretty smart too. About guns.
We may get to golf, we may not. Who knows.
Optima Iron Doors right towards the end, now, what are
we The twenty sixth of July. At the end of July,

(01:39:43):
also ending on that day will be the big summer
sale at Optima Iron Doors, where you can either get
yourself one of those beautiful heavyweight forged iron doors or
one of the more sleek and narrow profile steel doors,
every one of which is going to be suited to
exactly what you want. It's gonna fit in the space

(01:40:03):
you want it to fit without having to tear up
your house to get it. That way, beautiful, amazing, less
maintenance than would steal doors, by the way. And you
get to select the handle set, you get to select
the locking mechanism, and there are people in the showroom
which is going to open in forty five minutes over
there on North Post Oak. By the way, you've got

(01:40:26):
people over there who will help you with the selection process,
because if you try it do it by yourself looking
at the online gallery, you're just gonna be overwhelmed by
all the choices. Go in there, talk to them, Explain
who you are, what your family is, and they'll help
you find something that kind of suits your personality and

(01:40:47):
what you want people to think of you. When they
drive by your house or stop to deliver something, whatever reason,
they come to see your home, they're going to see
a beautiful home with a beautiful new door that's at
price now on during the summer saale, probably as low
as they're ever going to be again. Jason Fortenberry, the
guy who owns the place, set these prices before there

(01:41:10):
was any tariff talk about anything. By the way, all
of Optima's iron doors are made right here in North America,
down in Mexico. They bring them up every week or two,
whatever the orders are, they bring them up here. They
send great installers. When they installed my door two years ago,
you wouldn't even have known they'd been there. Everything went perfectly.

(01:41:31):
I was so glad to have them around, and so
glad to let them into my house to do that work.
I watched a lot of it. Probably they probably hated
being watched over their shoulders, but it's just it's amazing
to watch true craftsmen work their craft. And that's what
I got to do watching them install that door. Optima
irondors dot com. You can get a quote right there,

(01:41:52):
right now, Optima iron doors dot com. This is my
chance to tell you about one of my favorite little
Mexican restaurants down in Sugarland. It's called Berry Hill and
it's off Sugar Creek Boulevard. It's right on the freeway actually,
Sugar Creek at fifty nine. Cannot miss it. The family

(01:42:12):
who owns it has owned that restaurant for better part
of thirty years. I think it's the last location in Houston.
They had more earlier on and the owner of the
original owner passed away. His wife and his two sons
have taken the reins now and are keeping that tradition
alive with some of the best fish tacos you'll ever eat.

(01:42:35):
My preference, honestly, is for the seafood enchiladas, which are fantastic.
My wife likes the chicken tacos. They're fantastic. Everything you're
going to get out of berry Hill is going to
be absolutely delicious and a very consistent product too, because
the two primary people who are in that kitchen have
been in that kitchen for more than a decade. Apiece.

(01:42:57):
Family style dining when you walk in the door to
the left is family style boosting tables to the right
is kind of a sports bar setup with a lot
of TVs. And then there's also outdoor dining on days
when it's not rainy. Berryhill Sugarland dot com is the website.
They also do catering all over town. They've come down

(01:43:18):
here and brought us some delicious food twice now, I think,
and brought a lot of fish tacos too, and they
got gobbled up fast. Burryhillsugarland dot com. Berryhillsugarland dot com.
All right, welcome back, nineteen twenty one on Sports Talk
seven ninety The Ducks Pike Show. Thanks for listening. I
certainly do appreciate it. Let's learn something. I went to

(01:43:39):
search JTK from down at Shooter's Corner sent me an
email to let me know that the all around, best,
most reliable shotgun in his opinion for bird hunting around
here is at Benelli Super Black Eagle, which is a
great gun, there's no question about it. So I was
gonna check really quickly during the break to see what

(01:44:01):
those cost an approximate cost, And so I did a
Google search, and Google wouldn't let me look at any
of them. It'll show me a prop gun, it'll show
me a gun case, it will show me all kinds
of things, but it won't let me see a gun.
And a gun last time I checked, was something we

(01:44:24):
can all buy legally, legal to purchase. Yeah, pretty much,
but you can't search for it there, And that I
think is a little bit the their argument. Who whoever
made that decision to not show anything like that will

(01:44:45):
tell you that it makes America safer? I would have
to disagree. I don't think that not showing those anywhere
makes it any safer at all. It doesn't make any
of us any safer. Uh And in fact, to the contrary,
it may. It may discourage someone from looking for fear
that they're doing something wrong, and they're not doing anything wrong.

(01:45:08):
I own my share of guns, that's for sure, and
I enjoy shooting every one of them. I do so
lawfully legally, and I have no intention of ever doing
anything else with them. And why in twenty twenty five
I can't even go look up something that is a

(01:45:33):
lawful product to purchase. I can't find any place to
go look for it. That's kind of silly. Now, I
do know there are I'll have to check up a
few more places online because there's bound to be access somewhere.
There are. Sometimes I'll get like a little caution, Hey,
do you shure? Are you sure you want to go
to this website? And I know exactly what website it is,

(01:45:55):
and I've been to it a million times, so I say, yes,
it's fine, and I don't have any issues with that,
But to just arbitrarily make believe they don't exist, I
think that that steps over a line for me.

Speaker 7 (01:46:09):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:46:10):
In any event, that is j jtk's selection the Benelli
Super Black Eagle, and I he's not the only person
who's ever brought that one up. He's not the only one.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety Email
me does Pike at iHeartMedia dot com. Let's take a
little bit of a look at golf, shall we. Since

(01:46:30):
we're rounding, we've rounded third quite a while ago. The
three m open underway as we speak. Uh, let me
see where are they at though? Yeah, the Twin Cities,
all the way up there in cold country. Well it's
not cold today, but it will be at some point. Uh.
Leading the way Thorborn Thor Yeah, Thorborne. Olison Man. That's

(01:46:55):
a mouthful and nothing. That's his name, and that's where
he's from. It's probably a pretty common name. Fourteen under par.
He shot sixty two on Thursday, for heaven's sakes, as
did Sam Stevens, by the way, and then Olson's backed
that up yesterday with a sixty six. He leads the
way one shot clear of Jake Knapp, who went sixty

(01:47:19):
four to sixty five, two shots beyond Pearson Coody, who
is at twelve under par along with Sam Stevens, and
then at eleven under par you got Matt Schmidt, Chris
Kirk and Takumi Kanaya, all of those folks at eleven
and way more than I want. Holy cow, like a

(01:47:40):
bunch of guys at ten eric probably ten or twelve,
maybe fourteen guys at ten under par, including Chris Godderup
who's been in the news a little bit lately in golf.
Aksha Battilla. Also at ten, Alex Norn, Emiliano Grio, Luke Clanton,
a bunch of guys, Matt Wallace, Kirk Kidiyama. There's a

(01:48:03):
bunch of good players at ten under par, all well
within striking distance of where they are now up in Minnesota.
It'll be a good weekend for them. With the majors
kind of done now, maybe not so much attention or
maybe not so much interest at least among the best

(01:48:23):
players in the world by ranking. They're taking a little
time off, well deserved. I'm sure Scottie Scheffler is doing
something other than playing golf. This week. He might swing
the club once or twice, but between now and a
little bit later in the year, he'll take his time.
There's no reason yet. Those guys have nothing to prove,

(01:48:45):
nothing to prove to anybody, and I don't begrudge any
of them missing tournaments. The PGA Tour says they have
to play in a certain number per year, and I
think that's good for the game. But beyond making that
two or minimum, more power to them if they can
just take the time off. So one three, two, one, two,

(01:49:06):
five seven ninety email me Dougpike at iHeartMedia dot com.
I talking of golf. I got and had installed onto
my irons so far, and I'm gonna get the woods done.
I think I may do the woods myself, or I
say woods. There's nothing wood in that club or in
that bag anymore but the driver and fairway metals. I

(01:49:29):
might regrip myself. The people who make the superstroke grips
are neck deep now in club grips as well, just
regular club grips, and were nice enough. Carl Michelson was
nice enough to send me a set of those to
try out. I had that, like I said, I had
the irons recovered about three days ago, four days ago.

(01:49:52):
And I do like the grips tremendously. There's a lot
of different selections that they have, so if you want
to take us one, I told him I talk about
him if I liked him, and if I didn't, I wouldn't.
But I do like him, and if you're interested. They
sent me a set to test out, and so far,
so good. Haven't made a hole in one yet. Maybe
that'll come when I don't know that would be well.

(01:50:15):
I have one, but it was so many years ago now.
My son was still he was probably six or seven,
so ten years ago, probably now, And I milked that hole.
Every time somebody says asks if you've gotten a hole
in one, most people say no, because statistically that's kind
of the way it is. But I get to say
yes once. And the cool part was my son was

(01:50:37):
with me. Actually it was on number number eight, number
eight at Blackhawk, very late in the day. It was
it was the light was kind of fading, and when
I saw that I'd hit it on a good line,
but the and the pen was kind of writ and back,
but I didn't know exactly where it had ended up.
And when I got out of the cart, I carried

(01:50:57):
a wedge and a putter because whatever it was, I
was gonna have to face it. And I popped over
the hill and my son had already run around and
he gets out. He's like a water bug at that age.
He was just all over the place. He'd grabbed his
clubs he needed and had run up onto the green.
And when I crested the little hill behind the green,

(01:51:21):
I didn't see my ball. He said, Dad, your ball's
in the hole. That's so cool. So we shared that
good memory on the golf course He's more baseball now
than anything else, so more power to him. He loves baseball.
He hopes to play in college, and I hope he
gets a chance to. I think he's got a shot.
Speaking of shots, and speaking of shooters corner, just a
minute ago, JTK waded in on that Benilli super Black Eagle.

(01:51:46):
That and many other fine brand new shotguns and rifles
and handguns are available over at Shooter's Corner Palmerhiwa at
twenty nine Street in Texas City, along with several pre
owned guns, and by several, I mean a lot that
might be just what you're looking for. The only way
you're gonna know is if you go Palmer Highway to

(01:52:07):
twenty nine Street. It's not gonna take you long to
see the whole store either. It's a small, family run,
old school gun store. It even smells like a gun store.
And if you don't know what that is, then close
your eyes, walk through the door, and then just take
that big inhale and you'll know forever what a gun

(01:52:28):
store smells like. You'll hear conversations about the shooting sports,
about hunting, about target shooting, about competitive shooting. You'll hear
probably some law enforcement stories too, because there's a lot
of law enforcement hangs out around there when they're off.
Because if you're a law enforcement person, anybody who wears
a badge for a living, you get a discount at

(01:52:48):
Shooter's Corner, which I think is pretty cool. The Shooters
Cornertx dot Com is the website guns Ammo, reloading, supplies, optics, Camo,
some cool mounts from all over the world, and a
bunch of people who are passionate about the shooting sports.
Family owned and operated forty plus years, the Shooters Cornertx

(01:53:11):
dot com. One more time for Champions Tree Preservation. If
you remember Hurricane Beryl and you remember seeing trees in
your neighborhood tipped over on their side, maybe on the roof,
maybe on a car, or maybe just laying across the street, whatever,
the chances are there was something wrong with those trees
before the storm ever got here. And if you want

(01:53:33):
to make sure your trees are able to withstand to
blow like that, you need to get Champions Tree Preservations
arborus out there to take a look around. They will
come to your house, they will analyze, assess, and make
recommendations on whatever needs doing or not doing. If you're
in good shape. They'll tell you that they're not going
to try to sell you something you don't need. There's

(01:53:54):
no reason for that. They've been in thirty years, been
in business thirty years because they're honest with people, and
the people who use them tend to use them for
years and years and years to come. Afterward, they'll come out.
They came all the way down to sugar Land from
Champions for me and and Irwin did the guy who
owns the place, and he said, my four oak trees

(01:54:14):
in the front yard looked just great. And I was
really glad to hear it too, because I thought they
were gonna need some work. Turns out all they need
is a little food. I'm gonna feed them and they're
gonna be in good shape. If you do have to
take a tree out, they'll do trimming, they'll do all
kinds of work to your tree, deep root feeding, whatever
they need. But if you do have to take one out,
they also own a tree farm so that you could

(01:54:36):
have that tree replaced as soon as you wanted in there.
Two eight one three two oh eighty two Old one
two eight one three two oh eighty two O one
is the phone number. You can call them, get a consultation,
or just go to the website. Start there. You can
find that number there as well, Championstree dot com. That's
Championstree dot com. I'm hanging on the console to go

(01:54:59):
with this is that Iron Man by whom Black Sabbath
in honor of Ozzy of course, Oh now to recognize it,
I didn't know the intro to that song. Okay, very good.
Then anyway, here we go, moving on. At the very
beginning of the program, I talked about the exciting things
going on with dove hunting, and then we never really

(01:55:20):
got to it. And so I'm gonna take this opportunity
once I get my reading glasses back on. It's so
tough getting old. And this was from a release from
the Parks and Wildlife Department said the twenty twenty four
Texas dove hunting season is expected to be excellent, with

(01:55:42):
strong populations of both mourning doves and white winged doves.
Now I'm sure a few collar doves if you want
to knock them down, they're big as a pigeon. You
might want to bring some extra firepower if you're going
to see more than a couple of those it continues.
Abundant rainfall across much of the state has created favorable
conditions for dove nesting and habitat growth, suggesting ample opportunities

(01:56:06):
for hunters that would be of not just doves, but
quail too. Quail hunt's gonna probably be through the roof.
They're gonna get a little bit more water down there
in South Texas today too. Moving forward the popular textparks
of Wallach to biologists, I'm still kind of reading stuff
that I plucked out of that release estimate a statewide

(01:56:28):
population of around thirty four million mourning doves and a
record high thirteen million white winged doves. How they arrive
at those numbers, I'm really not sure, but I suspect
they originate from from checks visual checks along prescribed routes,

(01:56:55):
much like the old Gilnet surveys were for counting fish.
If you catch if you catch the right road on
the right day, you might think there's a million doves
in one field. The next day the weather changes and
they all fly away. But by going down the right
the same routes a lot of times over a course

(01:57:17):
of I don't know how long they figure this out.
The bottom line is they think there's a boatload of
doves in the state of Texas right now, and I
for one can't wait. I think I'm gonna take that
whole week off. I really do. I've got a golf
tournament I can play in. Or actually no, it's a
sporting clay shoot at the end of the week with
my buddy Jim Level and Steve Frounterhouse from well, yeah,

(01:57:41):
Steve knows where he is from the Houstonian Beautiful Hotel.
Steve runs that place and runs it so well. I
love Houstonian. I absolutely do. Hotel and spot. That's what
they call it. Good weather conditions, all that habitat, all
those seed bearing plants that that's good for everything. It's

(01:58:02):
good for all the insects. It's good for all the
birds that eat insects, birds that eat seeds. Good for
the little birds are gonna feed snakes and other little
smaller predators. It's just the whole ecosystem is gonna be
enhanced this year. And I think I got new that
grass in South Texas is gonna be super high. I

(01:58:25):
don't see how it can't be. All all of that
stuff just thriving and just more food, more cover for
the animals. It's gonna be great ponds and streams holding
water too, which is gonna make them attractive. There's gonna
be a lot more shooting I think this season over
stock tanks if that water holds up and it's only
got to hang around for another month, and I think

(01:58:47):
a lot of places got filled up here. North Zone
starts north soon. Central Zone both starts September one. South
Zone starts on the fourteenth of September, and then the
special White Winged Dove Days for the South Zone September one,
uh and two and then six through eight, and holy
cal that's the most convoluted, messed up sentence. So soon

(01:59:11):
September one through Monday September two, September sixth through Sunday
September that's Friday the sixth through the eighth, then Friday
the thirteenth, with hunting aloud from noon to sunset. So
you can tell a dove from tell one dove from another.
Let's go. Let me get Kevin on the phone here.
He's working a tournament today, I believe, and I got

(01:59:34):
him right there. Kevin, Where are you at? What have
you weighed so far?

Speaker 16 (01:59:38):
Oh Man, Doug, it's been busy first two days. Today's
the final day of the tournament. I'm ready for it
to be over. It's been fun, but a little bit
of everything.

Speaker 1 (01:59:50):
It's been a great event. Uh.

Speaker 16 (01:59:52):
A lot of kids and a lot of families fishing together.

Speaker 1 (01:59:55):
Wonderful.

Speaker 16 (01:59:56):
And I've had waited while who kingfish wow. A lot
of a lot of different offshore fish. And then the kids,
of course, the kids have crab is one of their events,
and they're always they'll catch one and then they're they're like, daddy, daddy,
let's go get it.

Speaker 1 (02:00:15):
Wigh of course what that wah?

Speaker 16 (02:00:18):
Way the wah who? I think the biggest wahoo is
thirty thirty pounds. That's a solid fish. Is not a giant,
but it's a solid fish, no doubt.

Speaker 6 (02:00:26):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 16 (02:00:27):
And a bunch of barracudas, yeah, big oldg you couda
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:00:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (02:00:32):
It's it's been a really fun event. The people down
here are just as good as gold. You can't can't
meeting nice for people. They have been having live bands
and stuff like that. Today at five o'clock is the
the final way in and then they'll be having an
awards ceremony and auction right after it and if you're
going down the Sergeant right before you get to the

(02:00:54):
big new bridge, right there on your right hand side,
you can't miss see it.

Speaker 1 (02:00:59):
Is the weather holding up pretty good, you will, Doug.

Speaker 16 (02:01:04):
Being that it's middle of July to the late July,
I was expecting to be just burnt pieces. And I'm
sure the first day there was a breeze blowing in
off the beach that was just enough to keep us
cool but not to completely destroy everything. Most most of
the big big boats got off shore and got to

(02:01:25):
go run deep. They have swordfishes a category, but nobody's
brought one in, and I think it's gonna be too
rough to run out that far today.

Speaker 1 (02:01:33):
Yeah, I heard shark you got one up out of
Galveston yesterday. I think it was yesterday or maybe day before.
He got out and picked up one somewhere way out there.
That's an interesting fish. And I love those things. They're
cool looking, yep.

Speaker 16 (02:01:50):
But yeah, they're having There have lve bands in the
awards this evening, a bunch of really nice people.

Speaker 6 (02:01:57):
If y'all don't have anything to do, come out and
give them.

Speaker 1 (02:01:59):
A show them a little bit of support. And where
exactly is that it's in Sergeant, Okay, right where they
used to have the old drawbridge.

Speaker 16 (02:02:09):
They put in a new bridge. It's like long curly
cues where you get on and off. You got to
make a big loop and right there at the base
of the bridge on the right arm, right before you
get to the entrance on the bridge.

Speaker 1 (02:02:23):
I think anybody can find their way to Sergeant will
probably be able to find their way to that bridge.

Speaker 2 (02:02:27):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (02:02:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (02:02:28):
If you if you go like you're going to the
beach at Sergeant before before you cross the bridge on
the right, you can't miss the event.

Speaker 11 (02:02:36):
Man.

Speaker 1 (02:02:36):
I spent some time down there surfing in high school.
Holy cow. Yes, it was kind of a quiet little place,
you know. It was a nice It was as good
a beach break as surfsider Gallason. But it just was
never crowded, never crowded. It was fun. Man, Kevin, thanks
not just for calling, but for doing this and doing
all these tournaments for these kids. I know you're passionate

(02:02:58):
about it, and so am. I keep yes there all right,
take care of that week, you buddy. Audio. I think
you had to go away another fish, That's what I probably,
That's what I'm guessing was happening. There's somebody standing there
holding a sheep's head or a croaker or something like
that and needed it weighed. That's a much higher priority
than chitty chatting with me, that's for sure. Seven one

(02:03:20):
three two one two five seven ninety Email me Dougpike
at iHeartMedia dot com. By the way, I have not
gotten to it yet because it was on the same
page as all my dough stuff. I don't know if
you've ever heard of Jbarm Barbecue. Have you heard of that?
Brett can't say I have. Jbarm is downtown, kind of
between between Dyk and Park and Toyota Center. Okay, all right,

(02:03:44):
And the man who owns that place, guy named John Toomey,
is having a birthday today. And if you think if
you can tell me how old he is, you can
you can guess whatever number you want. If you get
it within five years, I will buy you lunch at
Jbar and Barbecue. Nice.

Speaker 4 (02:04:02):
Okay, ah, since he owns a restaurant, I'm going to say.

Speaker 1 (02:04:09):
Fifty.

Speaker 6 (02:04:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:04:11):
This is kind of like one of those things where
somebody's told if they can make a basket, they get
something for free, and then the person who it yeah.
Then no, well no, and then the person swats it
out of the way.

Speaker 2 (02:04:23):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:04:23):
John's turning ninety seven today, So you were so close,
so close. Yeah, he's almost got within his fires off. Yeah, yeah,
John ninety seven man, And hats off to him. More
power to him, congratulations. Yeah, and and everybody. He doesn't
go down there and pick up briskets and stuff anymore.
But he's the one who started that place, and he's

(02:04:45):
the one who got it, got it going and has
some of the He had a hand in pretty much
everything that's on the menu. Great guy. I haven't had
the chance to meet him personally yet, but I think
I'm gonna take advantage and try to get down maybe
sometime next week and just tell him happy birthday if
he's hanging around, Thanks John, Happy birthday man. Yeah, ninety

(02:05:08):
seven Jbar and Barbecue Downtown. If you haven't, you probably
heard Sean Salisbury talking about him. They've been around quite
some time now, and a good place to go eat.
Ask Sean, ask Dan, they know they've been down there.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety Email
on me Doug Pike at iHeartMedia dot com. Uh, when
we get back, I'm gonna go back into a little

(02:05:30):
bit of a talk about the choke tubes and the
shot shells and shot sizes and whatnot. Uh exactly what
I like for well not I don't want I don't
want to get too precise, because I don't want to
talk anybody out of something they like, be like kind
of like talking somebody out of a lure. They like
to go fishing. If you like the loads you're shooting
right now, and you've patterned them and you know they're

(02:05:52):
they're working for you. If you like the brand of
shot shells you're shooting, more power to you. I will
if if you're buying the cheapest shells you can find, though,
I will maybe lead you. I might steer you away
from that if you really want to hit more birds.
We'll take a little break here. We'll be right back
The Dug Pike Show on Sports Talk seven ninety A.

(02:06:13):
Welcome back, Dug Pike Show on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Thank you for Listening's greatly appreciate it. Appreciate Brett being
in here too. A couple of people called to let
me know that that Banelli I was talking about a
little while ago. Since I can't find it online anywhere
right around twenty four hundred dollars or so. And I'm
sure there are there are options that would maybe and

(02:06:37):
little add ons that would make a little bit more,
maybe a striped down model, a little bit less, kind
of like buying a car or a bow or golf clubs.
There's all kinds of little things you can do to
make it a little better if you want to spend
the money or you can, You're still getting the base
model is still very good. And I think the Banelli's

(02:06:59):
that way. What Robbie was talking about guns, the ones
he's talking about that way as well. And I highly
recommend if you're going to invest in a new shotgun
this year, to talk to gun people. Don't talk to
one guy who likes his one gun. Talk to a

(02:07:19):
lot of gun people. And the people in the stores too.
That most of the gun stores I've ever been in,
I can genuinely say that the people who work there
are extremely knowledgeable as a whole. And I'm not talking
about a store that also sells guns. I'm talking about
gun stores, and they know what they're talking about, and

(02:07:42):
they're not trying to they're not trying to lead you
to the most expensive thing in the store. They're trying
to lead you to the thing that will make you
a long time customer. You'll come back for your AMMO,
You'll come back. The horror story that I talked about
before was a woman who bought wanted to buy a
shotgun for her grandson for Christmas, And on Christmas morning,

(02:08:06):
the kid opened the package with the shotgun in it,
and she said, wait, there's one more gift for you
as well, And the kid and his dad are looking like,
what could it be? And the person in the store
where she bought that shotgun had also sold her a scope.
A scope for a kid shotgun. Yeah, wasn't that nice

(02:08:28):
of him to make his commission on something that she
didn't need and probably ended up having to return and
embarrassed her in front of her family. She thought she'd
hung the moon. And whoever sold that to her probably
was in a different department the next day and didn't
know anything but just oh, yeah, that's expensive. Let's get

(02:08:50):
one of those in there too. The people you'll run
into in good quality gun stores and there, hey, look,
I've also run into people who work in departments where
guns are sold in department stores who know a lot
who are very good, and by and large, I think
because of mistakes like that that happened close to fifteen

(02:09:13):
twenty years ago, probably closer to twenty years ago, and
I would doubt that it's happened since or their gun
departments in some of these stores wouldn't last. So I'm
not knocking anybody who's working in a gun department anywhere,
because there's a lot to there's a lot to know
to make you qualified to be in that department. And

(02:09:34):
I think by and large, the retail industry in guns
and AMMO and optics and all of that stuff, is
doing a far better job. And there's so many different
choices now, too, Holy cow, so many different options, and
they're all so fun. To go shoot. Just go to
the range. If you've got property somewhere where you can

(02:09:54):
just light it up, go shoot. I remember a conversation
with Ted Nugent years ago about he had got a
place here in Texas that's pretty close to where the
Bushes either had or still have a ranch, and there
was always Secret Service there and one day somebody called him,

(02:10:20):
called Ted. Somebody from the Secret Service called Ted said, Hey,
can we come over to your place? We got some
new toys we want to play with, and he's like, yeah,
and over they go to Ted's place, if I remember
the story correctly, and they got out of their black
suburban with some very very brand shiny new guns and

(02:10:43):
cases of AMMO and proceeded to just shoot them up
your tax dollars at work, having fun, and have fun.
They did, he said, for quite some time. They just
blew up a bunch of stuff. And it is it's
just fun to shoot. It's it's a release almost depending
on what you're shooting and where you're shooting. Now. I

(02:11:06):
used to shoot competitively and I'm kind of over that. Uh,
I've got a shoot I'm gonna do on I think
it's September, fifth of Friday. And at that shoot, I
already warned the other guys on the team. I said, look,
I haven't shot competitively in a whole long time. I
still enjoy a dove hunt. I still enjoy a duck hunt,
a goose hunt, quail hunt, any bird hunt you want

(02:11:29):
to go on, I'll go and I'll do okay. But
I've never been great at targets. I've never been great
at flying targets for I don't know why. It's just
it's that moving object that Eda Riggy from American Shooting
Center's talked about that I've slowed down and and have
a better idea of how to hit them more easily

(02:11:51):
and more confidently. But it's just not my strong suit.
It's just not seven good heavens, We're almost done, aren't we.
Holy cow Brett, wrapping it up, wrapping it up. We're
gonna talk a little bit about this and a little
bit about that next week or tomorrow morning. By the way,

(02:12:14):
I didn't got just walked right over my shot size discussion.
That that fell by the wayside to the cutting room
floor also chokes, I might. We're almost gonna have to
start getting into more dove hunting stuff as we get
closer to it. We're uh, five weeks out, and that's it.
Actually five weeks from yesterday, I believe is the official

(02:12:37):
opening of dove season on September first. So beware or
be ready anyway, get out and shoot some If you
I'm very confident in saying this, if you go out
and shoot three times between now, shoot go, go and
shoot fifty rounds three times either at sporting clays, at

(02:12:59):
trapping ski at whatever, you want to. You go out
there and shoot three times between now in September first,
and you will probably even if you don't get any instruction,
you will be better. Because you will, you'll feel a
little bit more confident. You'll be accustomed to the sound
and the kick and all of that of the shotgun. Again,
it's been what eight months, nine months since you shot

(02:13:21):
a shotgun. Get out there and do it. I'm fired up.
I need to call Rob Logan here, and I need
to get out to America and tee it up a
few times between now and then as well. That's it
for now. I'll be back tomorrow morning, bright and early,
at well, not so bright, not so early at least,
I'll be here at eight and we'll go to ten
o'clock and see what we can talk about there. I

(02:13:41):
got a few things in mind for tomorrow. I think
you'll like stick around tomorrow morning for the whole show,
and you'll see what I'm talking about. Be safe, get outside,
have some fun. Iudios