Life’s Short, Get Ducks Part V: Ramsey’s Little Piece of Heaven

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to The End of the line podcast, I am Rocky Leflore on this July the 5^th post-Independence Day. Today we got back in with Ramsey Russell, not where you think we’re going to. We actually talked today a little bit about duck hunting which is grief in all this hot weather, I know all of us are missing, but you know we opened the podcast up, we talked about the messages, the response that he and I both have gotten over his story and talking about the fire. The recovery from the fire. We talk about those people that have calling, text, message to him that have been listening, people that he hadn’t heard from in years, pretty interesting. We actually get to talk a little bit about duck hunting. One of the big things that we talked about the other day was choosing a guide, how to choose a guide? It’s a great part of this episode because he and I both have a little bit of insight into that. It’s a great mixture. Like I said, we talked, we go back and we review those first episodes of that we’ve done in the past couple of weeks with him. We talk about picking guides, choosing the right guide for you. We talked some duck hunting, what it’s like that in Argentina. And anyway, I hope you enjoy hope you had a great holiday yesterday, Thank you for being here. All right guys, like I told you on the front of the podcast, we have got Mr. Double R too, Ramsey Russell himself sitting down in Argentina. What town are you in, Ramsey?

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know, Rocky, I’m on the side of road about two hours out of 130 square mile marsh that’s mostly dry right now, but we’re in the hole on the ground and after 7 or 8 days not being able to talk on the phone and engage on social media, we have some clients going out, I said, get me to a civilization. So, they drive me off on the side road to the trucks out this morning and hearing about four or five hours, I’ve got another group of clients coming in, I’m going to catch a ride back to camp with. I just, I don’t know where I’m at. I’m somewhere up in Northern Argentina. I’m going to tell you what, where we’re hunting, which is two hours from here, mostly down the dirt road. When I say, you can’t hardly get there from where you’re sitting right now I ain’t lying. It is one of the most remote places I have ever been to in Argentina. I mean, we’re talking just, 130 square miles of just dirt roads, no gravel. I don’t mean gravel like we call dirt road back home. I mean, like turn road, dirt roads. It is unbelievable. And but I couldn’t tell you where I’m at. When I get back to civilization, I found out and I tell everybody I just learned it this week. When you take pictures on your iPhone, it Geo marks it. So, if you look in your pictures, it says places and what I figured out is that when I get home I’ll be able to open up them photos and have enough fan with to download where that picture was taken and I can see it on google earth and I’m looking forward to it because I’ve been doing about my 12^th trip in this particular place. One of my favorite place in Argentina. I’ll tell you about it later. But it’s just, I really couldn’t tell you exactly where on earth I’ve been standing all these years shooting down here. I just know it’s remote.

Rocky Leflore: We will get in Argentina in just a minute. We’ll, we’re taking a break this week from the Ramsey Russell story because I’m just going to say this, I mean this with the kindest word, but it’s been heavy, it’s been real heavy in the sense of, man, listen, I had people text me and say, hey, I had to pull over on the side of the road, my hair was standing up on my arms listening to the past couple episodes. I mean, I know that you’ve been in the remote parts of the world, but I’m sure that you’ve gotten some feedback from people and hearing that story.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I did, I’ll tell you, I really, I’ll say it man, I’m really humbled to be a part of this thing because you know, you and my buddy, Ryan Bassham and Jake and Josh kind of had the idea of telling the story of Get ducks, but it’s starting then and I didn’t see it, you know, because there’s just a lot of stuff you want to forget and I’ve told bits and pieces of it, you know, because how do you live before forget without talking about stuff like that, but I had never really just opened, let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak and on the one hand it felt real good to finally just let it out but on the other hand, I hung up and I say, what the heck did I just say, in front of God and everybody but then I’m off in a hole and I get just bits and pieces and I got here this morning and man, I had all kinds of texts and emails and messages and stuff and I’m here, I mean you know what surprises me and I’m hearing from people I went to high school with and I didn’t talk to the people in person in 30 years and all of a sudden I’m seeing their perspective from the outside looking in and how it affected their lives and how hearing my side of it all these years later stuff they were scared to ask, you know was good for them, they found some, kind of like some closure for their youthfulness and hearing from just, hearing from a lot of neighbors and hearing from a lot of just people and you know, it’s funny Rocky, you go through life, you don’t really, I think everybody, I think it’s just a human condition to go through life and you just kind of see the life through your blinders with your blinders on, you’re just focused in your life and you really not me, but just everybody, really aren’t acutely aware of just how many people your life affects and so I’ve heard from a lot of people. It’s been very, very humbling to, have heard from so many people about it.

“But it is who, it is what built you into who you are. It’s a part of it. Yeah, I know that you, you went back and forth with us about man, I don’t, do I tell this, do I not, but it’s just a huge part of who you are in creating the person that you became or are today.”,

Rocky Leflore: And I want to tell a little back story from my side, why Jake and Josh kind of pushed you in to saying this. Look, it’s a huge part of your life. It’s a huge part of your story. It’s a huge part of, the reason that we started out from the beginning to Ramsey’s success in Get ducks, which is coming and we’re going to talk a lot about Get ducks in the future. But it is who, it is what built you into who you are. It’s a part of it. Yeah, I know that you, you went back and forth with us about man, I don’t, do I tell this, do I not, but it’s just a huge part of who you are in creating the person that you became or are today.

“But at the same time it’s hard to break out just the business from the personal and you know, and I think that the reason that is, is maybe because of my history, you know, because you know, the title, life’s short get ducks. I mean, I realized one day sitting in a burn center, you know, that if I ever got out of there, I wasn’t going to waste no time, I was going to do what I love to do. Life’s short Get ducks and hey, if it ain’t Get ducks, getting laid off or hunt deer, just whatever your thing is, but you better make a lot of sun shining.”,

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I really, until we got in the process of talking about it, I really didn’t truthfully fully realized that, you know, and just a little bit about Get ducks what I hear from other people from clients that have hunted with, that have never hunted before or have hunted, especially the clients, let’s say that in the past 10 or 15, 20 years have hunted with a lot of other services is what we hear over and over again is the personal level of service and you know, I’ve gone into detail, I’ve said in the past about how it’s a business, we make a living providing value to people that want to duck hunt around the world. But at the same time it’s hard to break out just the business from the personal and you know, and I think that the reason that is, is maybe because of my history, you know, because you know, the title, life’s short get ducks. I mean, I realized one day sitting in a burn center, you know, that if I ever got out of there, I wasn’t going to waste no time, I was going to do what I love to do. Life’s short Get ducks and hey, if it ain’t Get ducks, getting laid off or hunt deer, just whatever your thing is, but you better make a lot of sun shining. And Rocky, you know, I’ve got a lot of pictures. I love to take pictures and then my camp house, you go down this hall, it’s probably 50 or 60 pictures hanging up my Children when they were little, my Children when they’re older. First year first duck, things of that nature. But then there’s friends and people, clients that became close friends and it’s just on and on. I can talk about this, how you know, the picture of my friend who became friends actually were the client that life was really hard for him and he quit or my other friend that saved a lot of money worked hard, worked overtime there, Mississippi and he passed from us way too soon and I will never forget going to his funeral and there are a lot of friends, we had a lot of mutual friends of the MS ducks of the Duck South and I walked up, you know, pay respects and hugged his wife, shook his son’s hand and all the pictures I had laid out were from that hunt, it’s real emotional to talk about that kind of stuff because you realize it ain’t just business, these people that are calling you and trusting themselves to something so personal as a hunt of a lifetime and you know how and I think that’s kind of how I ended up in Argentina, how I ended up in this business in the first place was, too many people in this industry just don’t get or appreciate the personal side. And I see now having visited with you all on this subject matter really, maybe why we ended up kind of how and where we are.

Rocky Leflore: I say this, Ramsey. I’ll say this, even to the point of the small detail of you working at, show me, you know, taking care of people that is a huge foundational principle in creating who you are today. You’re in a service oriented business, you’re in a people business, you learn that in a restaurant. You know, at the end of the day, some people are just going to stand over that detail, but it’s a huge part of who you are in creating –

Ramsey Russell: You bring up a key point Rocky, you bring up a real key point about my business and my life and look, it ain’t just me man, my partner in life and business is my wife and I tell everybody all the time, she’s brain of the operation and I’m a good looks and everybody knows better, they don’t shoot bow but the truth matter is, I tell outfitters I worked with in other countries. I tell people I have tried to partner up with or work with in the past, they just don’t get it so we parted ways, but I tell outfitters locally, you know, look, you’ve got to produce ducks, you’ve got to be an expert in this duck hunting stuff but at the end of the day, you’re not in the duck hunting business, you’re in a service business. You’re in a people business. And that is so important, because look, let me tell you this, we do get phone calls sometimes at 1 or 2 o’clock at night and I can tell you one thing after 17 years in this business ain’t nobody calling me at 1 o’clock in the morning to tell me they’re having a great time. What they’re call and tell me is, hey, my flight’s been canceled. I’m stuck, something came off the rails. And I had somebody, a friend, a mentor of sort back in the day in this business a long time. And he tells me, well you’ve been in this business for 10 years, I don’t know, why, you just need to hire a secretary. Somebody answer phone for you. I think, it’s just ridiculous that you have to answer phone yourself. And I very quickly responded him. I said, listen to me, don’t nobody give a dang about my clients like my wife and I do, don’t nobody answer the phone at 1, don’t, go hire a lady to answer your phone and see how she treats clients at 1 o’clock in the morning. In fact, when people call you, they need a response. They don’t need to be put off. They don’t need to be waited. My point being it’s a service industry and that, you know, I appreciate you saying that. You know, it’s funny how telling you all, some of these part of my history and my story, it made me kind of see things differently than, I can see that now, I couldn’t have told you that a month ago when we were talking about all this stuff.

Rocky Leflore: Well and you know, yeah, we’ve talked about who you are. We talked about those foundational principle because they are instilled in you, you know, in your young years, in your teenage years of who you are and who you’re going to become but just gosh, dog at the end of the day, man, if you don’t like people, you do not need to be a hunting guide because that’s what it’s all about.

Ramsey Russell: Boy you ain’t lying. You got to like people.

“And it wasn’t because they weren’t killing ducks some of them, yeah, they didn’t kill ducks, but at the end of the day, they didn’t know how to handle people. They didn’t know how to handle negative feedback. And at the end of the day and I’ve told this to so many people, if you’re going to be a guide, you know what? It’s not about you. It’s not. You have to put yourself aside. It is about the client.”,

Rocky Leflore: You know, in just my short 22 years of being the guide I saw so many people come and go throughout guiding my business, the duck guiding business. And it wasn’t because they weren’t killing ducks some of them, yeah, they didn’t kill ducks, but at the end of the day, they didn’t know how to handle people. They didn’t know how to handle negative feedback. And at the end of the day and I’ve told this to so many people, if you’re going to be a guide, you know what? It’s not about you. It’s not. You have to put yourself aside. It is about the client. You know, I hear so many people say, I can’t believe you’re taking those people to shoot. And I know you’ve heard me say this a bunch of time Ramsey because we’ve talked about it. I can’t believe you’re taking people to go shoot those shovelers in the afternoon. Well, we didn’t kill but two or three mallards that morning, they’ve got two or three more ducks that they want to shoot. It’s not about me, would I do it, would I go up and shoot a shoveler? No, I wouldn’t. But these people from Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, they may see one duck a year and to see 50 shovelers fly into the decoys, they like it. They love it. It’s not about me and that’s who I see in you. It’s not about you.

Ramsey Russell: It can’t be Rocky, because these people are entrusted me to go around the world to come down here to Argentina and other places for trips of a lifetime. And you know, I just, I’m telling you, when you start seeing pictures of smiling back at you, people that are no longer with us and you realize just that was the trip of a lifetime. You know, it’s like, gosh, Rocky, I’d have, I guess, I had three or four full of bands if I hadn’t let them go. But you know what, at the end of the day it’s a piece of damn aluminum. You know I’m saying, it’s an aluminum that a human put on a bird and you know, this man traveled all the way around the world down in Mexico or something at the end of the day, gosh it makes them happy. You know what I’m saying. Whenever I get it, it’s mine. But when it’s up for grabs for somebody else, any questions they can have it. I want to see that smile. And that’s just me. You know what I’m saying? I just, I take a lot of satisfaction in knowing that were a part of that. You know, man, things get stressful in business. I mean things get stressful when a flight gets canceled and what happened there? There’s about four weeks ago, man American airlines just couldn’t get it together. Nor could, there were some sad waiting catty corner to see. It’s stressful but that’s where we shine. That’s where we get to come through. That’s where we get to call ahead work longer. That’s where we get to call ahead and have everything waiting on them when you get there or plan B it and plan C in it and everything come out smooth and come back to go, man that was a tripe of a lifetime, thanks for being there. And that’s what we kind of get out of it. And when you’re in the field, I’ve been in the field two weeks for client with clients has been down here, you know? And my job ain’t to go out and outshoot clients and do more and be better mine is just to be there. So, you know, my guides and my outfitters understand that they understand that Ramsey –

Rocky Leflore: I’ll say this about you. Here it’s what I’ve always thought was, what was great about the US hunt list or whether it’s about going overseas anywhere in the world to hunt. You’ve already done the homework. You know these guys can entertain and kill ducks. Now, yeah, okay. Let’s just say that a hunt. Let’s just take, let’s take an outfitter that you may have in Oklahoma. I don’t even know if you have one in Oklahoma. I hadn’t been on the website for a while but –

Ramsey Russell: I don’t but I like to find one, go ahead.

Rocky Leflore: You’ve already done that homework of who is going to kill ducks, kill geese and provide entertainment. It’s going to put you and the client first and listen, it cost 100, if it costs $100 more to go with an outfitter on Get ducks, who cares? No, I’m not. I’m just saying you’ve taken the homework out, you’re not having to guess whether this guy or not is good.

“And I tell people very point blankly if you want a five star luxury experience with expensive lines and fat cigars and 12 ft. long Iranian marble tables and somebody to powder your bum at the end of the day, call them and don’t call me if you want to shoot the absolute, the Jesus of birds call me. That’s my brand. My clients don’t care where you’re from and how they live and how much money they got or don’t, our guides want to duck hunt and they want a real genuine pure duck killing experience not an excuse.”,

“But we’ve got proven hunts, you know, I’ve been working now, I’ve got one outfitter I’ve been working with for four or five years and the rest of my outfitters, I’ve been working with 10 or more years and that’s a proven track record. You know, building a relationship with an outfitter of trust, it’s a lot like getting married, a lot like training a dog. I mean, trust only comes with time and improving this and that’s the people we choose to work with down here.”

Ramsey Russell: Let me sum it up to you this way. It is like a, the internet is so powerful. I mean this blows my mind, but if you could take a villager in the most remote country in the world and give him an iPhone, if he knows how to use it, he has cellular connectivity, he has more information in his fingertips than George. W Bush had when he was sworn into office. That’s technology today. The internet has opened up, the world has made people accessible. Why do you need a guy like Ramsey? I just go get on the internet. Well, here’s what everybody learned, the guy that have written the checks and flown across the world to show up to a wrinkled dink mediocre BS lodge, you know and we’ll get into that. But you want to talk Argentina this defines that model is, what they find out is anybody, you can find anything on the internet, but anybody can be anything on the internet. And that’s where people rely on us, you know, because we have been there and let me say this about Argentina, I don’t think that our hunts are for everybody. And I tell people very point blankly if you want a five star luxury experience with expensive lines and fat cigars and 12 ft. long Iranian marble tables and somebody to powder your bum at the end of the day, call them and don’t call me if you want to shoot the absolute, the Jesus of birds call me. That’s my brand. My clients don’t care where you’re from and how they live and how much money they got or don’t, our guides want to duck hunt and they want a real genuine pure duck killing experience not an excuse. And I say, Argentina defines it because I see it. You know, I have been down here Rocky for 17 years. I’m two weeks into an eight week trip right now. I’ve been down here, Excuse me. Yeah, that’s right. I’ve been down here for 2 to 8 weeks for 17 years and there are years, I come down and I jump and I meet and I go and just meet these different outfitters and when I go into the largest hunting shows in the country in the world right now, I know every single argentine outfitter and guess what? I don’t represent a damn one of them. Why? Because if you want that, if you want what they’re offering, you’re not looking for, what I’m looking. I spent the time I’ve done the homework I’ve gotten off the grid and you know, I see it like I can think of two of the most heavily advertised and certainly most auctioned outfitters in Argentina and here’s what I know that the rest of the world doesn’t, they share lodge Okay. They rented some little hand me down live up here on the river and one of them use it sometimes the other one use it sometimes two different name brands and like roofing contractors just hiring out to the same foreign labor to come nail the shingles on your roof, they’re just contract out to some fishermen or just some rice field labor. They got the brand, they got the pictures, they got the story but see I get so much business off of them because people call me up saying man does it make sense that I only shot 13 ducks in Argentina, there were 8 of us and we shot 13 ducks one day and I say, oh, you must have heard with that guy. He goes, yeah, I did. How do you know? You know, I tell you, here’s what I’m getting at. I was sitting in convention last year and this kid and his dad walk up, kid follows us on social media and so he saw we were there and want to come by and chat you really want to talk to Ryan Bassham Instagram. He didn’t care nothing about Facebook and Get ducks or Ramsey, he wanted to talk to Ryan because he follows Instagram. When I does our Get ducks Instagram page. And so I got to talk to the dad and that’s, yeah, we went on combo hunt last year ducks and doves and I said, how that go, you know, he said, man, the dove hunt was phenomenal. He said, but the ducks hadn’t migrated yet, you know, and then we got down there and explained to us that the ducks had migrated yet. They weren’t in. And so we were just going to dove hunt for three days and I said, well, who did you book with you? And he thought for a minute and told me the name and I said, you all went to Cordoba. And he goes, yeah, we went to Cordoba. I said, well first off there’s no continental migration of waterfowl in Argentina, there’s none. I mean they, they’re nomadic, they move around chasing resources, but there’s no stuck migration like we have in North America. Number two duck hunting is prohibited Cordoba because there’s so little water and so few ducks there’s no duck hunting to speak of. And number three, the outfitter you just told me about is a Cordoba dove hunting operator. So there’s not a duck hunt down there sir, with all due respect. And he thought about that and he says, you know, that kind of makes sense. I guess, that’s why they don’t have any duck pictures in their site. Now, see here’s what I know, Rocky after 17 years of talking to outfitters and the hunters every single day for 365 days a year. What I know is that probably 50 to 75% everybody that goes to Argentina is going one time. They saved their money or they work hard and they want to take their kids on a trip and they’re going to go one time and if I was a crooked conquistador blooded Argentine. Well, I might lie to them to get that book. And what’s the matter? They ain’t never going to come back anyway, chances are I got their money. Oh, senor or there’s no they no migrate this year. We go shoot dove senor and I’ve seen it over and over again. Just a bunch of damn empty promises. You know, and I’ll tell anybody, I’ll tell anybody listening, you know, you see these threads online that say, who’s you’re hunt we hunt down in Argentina by all means, I’m telling you let me give a piece of advice by all means check out everybody. It’s a big decision. There’s a lot of money. Check out everybody, you know what I’m saying, don’t leave any stone unturned. But we’ve got proven hunts, you know, I’ve been working now, I’ve got one outfitter I’ve been working with for four or five years and the rest of my outfitters, I’ve been working with 10 or more years and that’s a proven track record. You know, building a relationship with an outfitter of trust, it’s a lot like getting married, a lot like training a dog. I mean, trust only comes with time and improving this and that’s the people we choose to work with down here, you know, we tell everybody all the time, if you’re looking at hunts I triple dog, dare you to compare my hunt description to anybody else’s on the internet and ask yourself, why don’t they have all the prices? Why don’t they have everything posted up? Why don’t they have all the details? We’ve got ours out there, Rocky in front of God and everybody, there’s no hidden agenda. There’s no hidden fees, you don’t come down to us, oh yeah, I forgot to tell you there’s more tips more this more that more ammo and that we don’t do all that. It is right there. You can take a sharp pencil and calculator and add up all your expenses, you know what I’m saying because we are what we are, we’re not cutting deals like used car sales and I hear our outfitters on, that’s how we work. And you know, you brought up the point about, well, so what if it’s more expensive what if it’s not more expensive because we’ve got relationship with operators worldwide now, but especially in Argentina, which is a big –

“What, I need to correct myself Ramsey, what I’m saying in that is, I would rather at the end of the day go with somebody that you recommend versus a fly by night gas station guide that maybe $100 cheaper is what I’m saying. You’ve already done the homework, you know.”

Rocky Leflore: What, I need to correct myself Ramsey, what I’m saying in that is, I would rather at the end of the day go with somebody that you recommend versus a fly by night gas station guide that maybe $100 cheaper is what I’m saying. You’ve already done the homework, you know.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve done the homework and we gutted it out. But our operators we work with just like you say, our operators we’re working with, they say, well number one, most of them don’t have another mechanism but through us, we’re their marketing division we’re their client relations division, we do everything up there at shows and on the way to here –

Rocky Leflore: Your name is on the line. Your name is the one that’s on the line.

Ramsey Russell: And when they show up, they fall right into place, they fall right into the blind, they fall right into the transfer, they fall right into wherever they need to be right into getting their guns into, that’s what we need. We got a guide down here that we’ve hired that works for us on doing that. We hired a lady 8 or 9 years ago and buddy, let me tell you what a couple of hunts we got people love her. She is our employee. She’s our boots on the ground in Argentina. And what that leads it up to, is when they show up that lodge, that guide has one thing he has to do, you know what that is? get duck. Take care of the clients and produce the hunt, he’s all in focused on that. And you know, there’s just a lot of freedom in that and you know, but what I would say by all means, look at everybody, check out everybody do your homework and if you decide you might be interested in hunting with us on one particular hunt, there are questions you need to ask and call me and I will talk your head off because I want to make sure because a lot of times people call and say, man, I’ve been looking at your website, I want to go to this hunt and as we talk and I ask questions and they ask questions, I answer, we talk. I realize, I finally say, look, that’s not the hunt you want to go on. For what you’re telling me your objectives are and what you want, what’s your ideal is out of this hunt, I think you’d be happier over here, we got more ducks, we got more doves, we’ve got more prettied, we got more something else, we’re closer to town, you know and it’s just like you know, my job is so easy Rocky, if I just listen to what he’s telling me, I can get an idea of his expectations and if I reconcile his expectations with the right hunt. A lot of my outfit are down here resent the fact that we choose to work with other outfitters in addition to them. I’ve got four outfits down here I’m looking at 5^th in terms of waterfowl, I just don’t know if it’s going to be a good fit, but I’ve got a guy you know, that’s pretty close to town, you will shoot 6-5 ducks per man per day in your face, in the lips over bait. But I mean, they say oh everybody down Argentina baits. No, one guy baits really, really right. He manages it perfection. And if you’re close and you got mobility issues and if you don’t want to travel far, but you want to shoot ducks like you have never even dreamed of, I got you a guide and he’s the best, he’s the duck killing, son of a gun in this country. And then I got another duck hunt that is so remote so far and the very first time I walked into that marsh I came out and my hostess, my translator said, well what do you think of it? I said, I want my ashes scattered in the marsh. I’ve never seen anything like it. I had never seen anything like that. There’s not a great, there’s not a kernel of corn within two hour of drive where I’m sitting in a duck hole and I’m shooting as many or more ducks than anybody else in this country, I mean anybody else. I have had clients come down here that have been coming to Argentina for 20 years that putting that marsh and tell me in 20 years I’ve never seen anything like this and it is spectacular is unveiled it is wild it is you and a guide not a bird boy, not a farm labor, it’s just paid to babysit you, I mean a guide. He calls, he puts out decoys, he scouts, they build little blind individually for you in the morning you shoot by yourself. And it was the wildest purist duck hunting ever on earth. And then for the guys who want to shoot a combo, I like the duck hunt but don’t want so much. I’ve got a place up here, duck doves and for geese and golden Dorado fishing and for guys they don’t care so much about that they want to shoot ducks the morning does in the evening, I got this other place that again, it’s real close to town. And you know, we’ve come down here and we just, I know, I think, I know after 17 years what hunters want and so I just based on that, not on my own feelings, but based on what they tell me they want, I have gone and built long term relationships with outfitters that we worked very successfully together. And but you know, now I will say this Rocky, the most frustrating thing about what I do and it’s very frustrating is buying a duck hunt especially an expensive one and going to Argentina, Mexico, there’s nothing cheap about it, but you’re going to be $1000, $2000 into airfare period. If you don’t do nothing but fly down here, you’re deep into it already, let along the hunts and transfers and ammo, whatever else may come with it, it is an expensive proposition. I mean, I would tell anybody listening, you want to come spend 5 days in Argentina and shoot personally as many ducks in five days as anybody I know shoots in a couple of seasons back home, this is the place to come but you need to understand man by time you’re all in air fare and all from time you leave your house and come back, you could probably catch a deal and take your family to Disney okay? And have a good time. Maybe not the best of time in Disney, but a good time in Disney and that’s just something to consider. So we’re talking a real big commitment but what I have realized is, it is far more personal and far more subjective than buying a $30,000 Silverado pickup truck man, I’m telling you what, you know, ain’t nobody is mostly committed to buying a truck as they are spending money on a big lifetime duck hunt And you know, it’s like, I’ve always said, I wish, I sold light bulbs for a living because everybody in the world expects the same thing light comes on, light goes off, light comes on light comes off. That ain’t the way a duck hunt is. Just this week I’ve had people that were so different about the way they hunted and so everybody wanted something just a little bit differently. I had a guy Rocky, this on up there in age his health ain’t doing no well and I wish he had explained a little bit about his mobility issues before you come to the most remote place on earth that I’ve got to hunt in Argentina and the man just couldn’t have been happier. You know, we walked him in closer, he didn’t have to do some of the longer walks. He did not kill as many birds, but he wrote one of those glowing reviews I’ve ever had and I got rebooked the trip for next year. You know what I’m saying and it’s just, you know, and then other guy were there for, had a guy last week, he’s a real big decoy carver. I mean, I don’t mean just little a decoy like I use, I mean, real deal stuff and he was all about species. He want to put his hands on different species, he pulled out his tape measure, he brought out his camera, he brought out his tape recorder man, he was making all these little calipers doing all kinds of anatomical measurements and everything. He was really getting into that because he’s going to go home and carve these birds for competition. Everybody wants something different, you know, so what I’ve got to do, my job is kind of easy if I can reconcile their expectations with the right hunt I win, at the same time, you know, it’s so personal and that’s why we just, we struggle hard and we work hard to make sure everybody’s happy and we do pretty damn good at keeping people happy with it.

Rocky Leflore: Well, at the end of the day, it’s one thing that you and I talked about numerous times all we have is our name and we want to ensure at the end of the day that that name is valued and is still good in the eyes of people.

Ramsey Russell: You’re right about that Rocky. You know, I mean you’ve been an outfitter and you know, I mean, all you got is a reputation and credibility and when I look at there is like, who should I book trip with? I’m telling you, look at all of them, take every suggestion, you know, but then ask yourself a little bit, do you remember them old commercials, old EF Hutton used to be like a stockbroker or something and used be a commercial where people would be eating dinner or something, they hear a conversation about a EF Hutton said, everybody stop and listen to what he said, they take that recommendation. Well, you know, at the end of the day, not everybody is EF Hutton. I mean, you know, you really got to ask yourself before you fork over that kind of money and go anywhere, do anything and it might be just go to, go on vacation to Boston or go to Argentina, go do something, anything in life, you just really got to ask yourself, know your source, you know, because you know, what I see a lot of, and hey, great, what I see a lot of is people will, I mean, just who’s answering these questions, you know, has the guy been there for 17 years and met everybody? Have he been there one time? Because to me perspective and being able to gauge it relatively is very, very important to an answer you know I’m saying, I mean, don’t ask me about gas mileage on Toyota, I’ll tell you about the Chevrolet, but you got to keep it relative. I never really driven a Toyota, I don’t really know what the performance is. You’ve got to kind of, you know, you just take it like a thread or just take a thread on the internet. What’s your favorite gun? Well, you know, everybody answers, there answers are the gun that they own. They don’t talk about the gun they want or a gun that they’ve heard somewhere, they talk about the gun, they own and if you want to keep it relative and in perspective and so do your research, do your homework and we tell people all the time we help but I’m going to say one final thing and you can call us first or call us what you want. I get asked a lot of times how come you don’t auction your hunts? How come we don’t auction our hunts? And we don’t because we don’t have to. Our outfitter don’t have to auction hunts. We’re selling out most of our bed nights every year at all four of our lodges just like we do often value, often real hunt for real hunters and doing this thing. But I had a guy come up, he represents a big conservation organization, a big charitable thing and look I know there’s probably some background and all but just remember I’m in a truck stop and everybody’s watching World Cup so, that some of the conversation in the background but he came up and he started talking to me about you know doing some auctions and doing some stuff and I smile and I told him I said you know the number one source of second timers remember I told you most people are going to come just one time that’s all they got one time. Take their kids to Argentina one time and of that percentage, there’s another part of them that go that one time it wasn’t quite what they expected so they go again. And the number one source that I have of those comebacker, try againers are people that bought a freaking hunt at an auction. Now, I’m just going to tell you the first time I came to Argentina in 2001, I think we paid about $400 a day. Now, we flew from Miami round trip to $500, okay? That’s the time value of the dollar going to work for you since 2001. Man, I’m going to tell you right now, I had a client called me the other day, he’s been to Mexico with me several times everything else he was telling me about a hunt that buddy of his bought at auction. He said, I can go for 5 days for $750. I said wow. He said but I just got to ask you how come you’re hunt or $850 a day, $800 a day. I mean this seems kind of said, I said, look, you better trust your gut instinct on that because Rocky, you’re a business owner, I’m a business owner, everybody’s listening have a business own a business or have business interests or manages the household budget, there’s fixed costs in running a business, there’s gas, there’s fuel there’s lodging and there’s fixed costs, no matter what you do, you can’t change that fixed costs. And when you see a market, a value oriented price range of $800 or $900 a day, better ask yourself what’s missing, if I can go for a fraction of that, something’s missing, something’s up. And I can tell you from experience something bad up with that. You see what I’m saying there’s something. Is it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, you know, and that’s what we see Rocky, I mean, you know now if you’re talking, going dove hunting down in Argentina by all means, I’ll tell you right now buy it on the auction because you take the top 10 outfitter, top 20 outfitters in Argentina shooting doves? They’re all equal. It as cheap as you can. Because you’re going to spend a ton of money on ammo, you’re going to rob from college, kids college education to pay for ammo when you want a good dove hunt down there. The best thing to do is buy that hunt in an auction and get it dirt cheap. You start talking ducks, heck no buddy, you better do your homework and go with right people because I just, I describe it after all these years and having worked with all these people have met all these people down in Argentina, I describe it, not to be rude or racist or anything else like that, but it’s like, I kind of describe it as the conquistadores genetic because you know all of Latin America kind of originated from Spain. Spain had a conquistador that took off and took over the world, you know Mexico and Argentina, all of Latin America. One time I was done in Mexico and we were having this conversation about Mexico’s history and stuff with my outfitter and he had a translator, we will communicate we were down in the city of Merida which the very downtown area it’s kind of walled off into old Spanish fort walls, he snapped his fingers said follow me. So, I walked over there and it was the facade, it was the front of the bank building of the original bank that was there during the Spanish fort days now behind it was just a parking garage one nothing but this wall, this, the front of what used to be a bank and he, we took out our iPhone and kind of shining up and he says if you can understand the release, the carvings into this column right here, you will understand the history of Mexico and I couldn’t find, what I could see was like a conquistador holding a double bit axe wearing his little knight armor, you know, his little suit and he’s standing on something and he kept pointing, that’s the secret what he said, what is he standing on? So we shine our light, fine everybody gets your light and your light when I realized the conquistador standing on is a couple of heads, couple of human heads like Mayan heads has been jumped off and he said that is the history of Mexico. He says the conquistadors, they came, they didn’t negotiate, they didn’t make treaties, they killed and they took and just kind of a long way of going by saying, you know what I see a lot in this country, especially what I see a lot is, I see people that used to be translators and say, oh the land of milk and honey, I sell duck hunts now I’ll make a bunch of money or business people or people that have absolutely no understanding of duck hunting whatsoever itself, snapping their fingers and saying I’m going to make money from the land of milk and honey. I’m going to sell duck hunts down in Argentina, I’m going to be in Argentina duck guide and they don’t think about that father and son want the combo and they don’t think about, you know, screw them going back and talking bad about me. I want their money today. So I’m going to sell my dove hunt calling it dove, duck combo and explain to them there ain’t no ducks when they get here you what I’m saying. And I say that over and over again, they just take like conquistador a little bit and I know that’s an oversimplification. I’m not describing thereby life because it’s a beautiful and wonderful country. But I’m just saying, you know, what are you really out if you leave Mississippi and drive 8 hours to Southeast Oklahoma, what do you really out on a $250 a day duck hunt a little bit of gas a little bit of time. It hurts because you’re looking forward to having a good time with your family if you pick the wrong outfitter so buddy, when you start flying around the world and going to a foreign country, it matters, you know, because money is money, the time is money too Rocky. You know, and one thing we’ve learned about our clients, whether they save for a long time or they can go on five trips like this year and we got clients that do that. You know, money really ain’t the limiting factor, it’s time because time is money, you follow what I’m saying? And they’re just, you know, for many of us there’s no second chance, I mean, you know, for my clients and a couple of them just left, you know, there ain’t no coming back. This was it. They saved and they work for it. You know, I’ve got a group coming to tomorrow to another operator of ours down south. You know, they’ve been planning this trip for 10 years, no pressure or nothing. I’m dealing with a group that has been planning this trip for 10 years. You know I’m saying? And that’s a lot of weight on that. And I’m humbled and proud that they chose us because they’re going to my operator. They’re going to shoot 6 to 5 ducks, man a day. Sure, sunrise at the next day, they’re going to flip up on them ducks and but anyway, Rocky, that’s you know, I’ll talk forever about duck hunt that’s what I do for a living, so I hope everybody bear with me.

Rocky Leflore: You know what I think about when you talk about that, when you talk about time and the value that you bring in saving people time. I guess it was probably year or three of being a duck guide. We were in an El Niño pattern. It was warm and wet in the south and I forget guy from Atlanta Georgia looking at me when he got there and said, man, I just wish you would’ve told me it was no birds here or spread out everywhere, I wish you would’ve told me. It’s not that I didn’t want to come over here and see you hang out be entertained but my time is so valuable then to just come over here and sit. I’ve got 400 people that are depending on me and me being away from that office they’re, you know that takes a lot away from my business. I just wish you would have told me. And I learned from that point on. I always talk to every client that came through my business and said, look this is what you can expect coming over here. And it is man, the people that go on these guided hunts, they don’t have time to mess around with the gas station guide service that you know, they could give a crap if you kill anything kind of what you’re talking about.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Rocky Leflore: You know, time is the most valuable thing that they have and I think by the Get ducks resource –

Ramsey Russell: I mean, you know there’s a lot of business owners, Dennis for prime example, buddy let me tell you what, there office ain’t moving if there ain’t there at the office. Lawyers, there it, ain’t, money ain’t nothing, it’s the people that are depending on them to be at the office of the office runs. You see what I’m saying when they’re not there. So, time is everything.

Rocky Leflore: I think that’s why Get ducks is such a valuable resource. Listen, if you’re going on the hunt or an excursion with somebody from the Get ducks, it’s not guaranteed nothing in life is guaranteed to death and taxes. That’s it. But you’re going with a guide, I guarantee you, Ramsey, likes you said, especially these guys on the US hunt list, which you and I have talked about extensively. You know, you’ve done that homework, you know what these people are in for and the worldwide hunts and it’s so important because you go to these wildlife extravaganzas or these big events where all these, trade shows, where all these people are set up. It’s kind of like Ramsey said, would you want to go with somebody that’s been there a bunch and knows what you’re getting into.

Ramsey Russell: Here’s a distinction. You know, people ask all the time, you know and admittedly there are lots of people in this world that are “booking agents” they’re really asphalt contractors or taxidermist or something else, you know, and it’s just a part time gig for them and they give the business a bad name, they don’t do this full time. I know somebody writes a check to your business no matter what you’re doing, they deserve your full time attention, that’s your part time, maybe kind of, sort of, if you know attention, they deserve your full time attention. But I’ve always looked at like there’s two Rocky here, it goes back to what I was saying, the guy calls up, start telling about what he wants to hunt and I asked, what are your objectives, what is your priority? You want to go on duck combo but tell me specifically how that breaks out in your mind because there’s a difference man combo hunts are real wild card to this business because really if you want the absolute best duck hunt and the absolute best dove hunt, what we’re really talking about is you add about three or four more days to your travel, your extended trip, you talking about money and time to move to multiple different places. And when you’re talking about the average combo, what you’re talking about is a few ducks and more or fewer doves or a bunch of, you know, a bunch of doves and a lot fewer ducks because they’re none combo to real wild card. That was the hardest hunt we ever found in Argentina was finding the right couple of combo to suit everybody what they really wanted. To some guys, when they say they want a combo, what they really want to come shoot a whole bunch of duck and he goes shoot duck in afternoon, they got it. But if you start talking combo around shows around outfitters, you know, it’s a big deal. But here’s a real big distinction between what I do and what an outfitter does is this, you’re an outfitter, you’re at a show, it don’t matter what that client asked for. You get, if you got to kill something to eat, right? You’ve got to make the sale and it don’t matter what you got compared to what your neighbor got. You got the best, you got to make the sale I think out there gets so into making the sale at all costs. It’s a human time. It’s a survival thing, but it’s all about yeah, we got it. Well, the advantage I have is being able to sit back and listen portfolio of hunts. I’m not guide just this hunt, I’ve got a portfolio of hunts and I can very crafted over time given a lot of different options to where I can steer people toward to hunt that’s sounds like based on my experience and other clients best suits their needs and therefore this outfitter over here may not get the sale from that hunt or get the process from that hunt but this outfitter does and you know, at the end of the day, I’ve never understood the concept of a dual real estate agent. You know I’m saying? You ever, you’re in real estate. I’m just saying, I don’t understand it because either you work me or you work for them, you work for the buyer or the seller. There ain’t no working for both. I want with both. But at the end of the day that client is my number one priority. And so really I’m not a dual agent. I am all in for the client. All right guys, I hope you enjoyed listening to Ramsey, visit about Argentina responses and the people reaching out to him about life’s short Get ducks story and even talking about how to find your next duck out. I hope you enjoyed that today. Next week we’re going to get into a little bit more about the US hunt list. How Ramsey came about with that list. I mean, you would think that it makes Ramsey tons of money but at the end of the day it’s just complementary to what he does. It’s just, it’s a complimentary business to Get ducks. So, look forward to that next week. Hope you guys enjoyed today. I want to thank you for joining this edition of The End of the line podcast and power by DuckSouth.com.

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