Life’s Short GetDucks: Jack Miner Bands

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to the End of the Line Podcast. I’m Rocky Leflore, sitting in Oxford, Mississippi on this Thursday in the Duck South Studios, with me today, Bradley Ramsey. Bradley how are you bud?

Bradley Ramsey: For a man running on 2 hours of sleep in about 20 hours of travel time, I’m doing great Rocky.

Rocky Leflore: I don’t know what’s worse. 2 hours asleep or walking downstairs to a puddle of water in the floor this morning. Can’t decide – Overflow line of my air conditioner backed up last night, as a matter of fact, it looked like it was just caked up with mud. It was awful. Got that fixed. Anyway, when I woke up at 05:45 this morning and walked downstairs, there is a puddle of water and that’s never good because that water had to leak through something to get to that floor which was sheet rock.

Bradley Ramsey: Oh, that’s not fun at all.

Rocky Leflore: Not at all. Then my kids decide they will go pull the curtains off the wall in their room, this morning. So, and then a lot of people –

Bradley Ramsey: Oh no.

Rocky Leflore: But I’m not complaining at all. I’m not complaining about this at all, but a lot of people don’t realize how much we put into editing these podcasts, and Ramsey yesterday – Which is coming up in just a minute, he decided to go a little overboard on the end us. So, if you’re still hear a few of those in the podcast, that come up in just a minute – I did my best to get every one of them out, so it’s been a great Thursday, so I know what you mean.

Bradley Ramsey: Oh yeah, well as you know – Look, I didn’t want to wake up to any water where it wasn’t supposed to be, but I feel your pain because that happened to me, at my house, 2 summers ago, in August, and the beautiful spot where it decided to leak in my house, was all hand laid parquet floors.

Rocky Leflore: Yeah.

Bradley Ramsey: So, not only was that a whole new air conditioning unit because it was just done, but the parquet floor has to be replaced and that’s a project in the waiting, let’s just say.

Rocky Leflore: Yeah, it’s no fun when water leaks inside of a house at all, anywhere, sheet rock, flooring – Thank goodness I have tile floors. But yeah, it’s never any good at all. No. And my wife – I’m pretty calm. I am even flow, all the time. My wife, she freaks out, man, about stuff.

Bradley Ramsey: Oh, I think we may have married some very similar women. My wife couldn’t handle that stuff either. And unfortunately, I’m the, just get out of my way and I’m going to handle it guy, and so, I’m not usually that polite or courteous when these things happen. You know, it’s shut up and grab me a towel, grab me a bucket. I’m going to do what I have got to do, and then we’ll deal with the emotions of the finances of it later, and women don’t respond to that really well. Exactly. I don’t want to talk about it while I’m working on it.

Rocky Leflore: Right.

Bradley Ramsey: I just want to get it done. This isn’t an emotional support time. This is, get it done time.

Rocky Leflore: I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Bradley Ramsey: Oh yeah, and we’ve had that conversation, my wife and I and she’s like, well, okay, as long as you understand, that I’m going to deal with emotion, I’m like that. I’m going to deal with reason and logic. I’m a male, your female. We’ll be mad at each other for a little while, we’ll get over it. I’ll have things fixed and well, the panic will go away.

Rocky Leflore: I’ll say this, I am not the world’s greatest handyman at all. My number 1 thing, that I hate to work on – I don’t know what it is, I don’t know. The one thing that I will pay for to be fixed – I can pretty much handle everything else, is electricity. I don’t fool with electricity. If something breaks down when the with electrical, I’m calling a handyman. But besides that, I’m trying to think pretty much anything, plumbing, painting, sheet rock, anything like that. I mean I can handle it, but I don’t touch electricity. Bradley Ramsey: Now, electricity is my no go because I’ve gotten popped once really good before. Plumbing, I’m good with, up until a point, when I start seeing things that I tried to send out of my house, via a pipe, come back at me. It’s worth whatever the man charges me, to deal with that mess because I try to get rid of it and if it’s coming back at me, no. That’s why plumbers should get paid a lot because they have to deal with my poop, I will say this.

Rocky Leflore: If you are 18 years old, and you’re listening to this podcast right now, or you’re toward the end of your high school career, say 17 to 19, you’re still in that freshman, sophomore year of college, or senior year of high school, you’re listening this podcast, let me give you 1 piece of advice. If I could go back and be that age again, let me tell you what I would – The 2 things that I would learn. I would learn to how to fix electrical and I would learn all I could about plumbing. Because let me tell you, those 2 things – You can make all the money you want to make in this world, doing those 2 things and there –

Bradley Ramsey: Absolutely.

Rocky Leflore: We’re getting into a time and age, and I was talking about this with my father-in-law yesterday. We’re getting into a time and age, where nobody wants to do manual labour. Here’s where this conversation came from. I was telling my father-in-law, he works semi-retired, still working around, with his cattle. He has a lot of rental property in Oxford. I said, you’re always working on these rental properties in Oxford, you ought to just start up a rental company management business, where you just manage people throughout town, with their rentals.

Bradley Ramsey: Yeah.

Rocky Leflore: Because I was talking to somebody else about it. A lot of this stuff that’s built in Oxford – Of course it’s built in Oxford, right now, it’s brand new. The main call that you get, when you’re managing these properties, number 1 – To collect the money, but number 2 – For minor issues, that you may have to go over and either you fix, or you call a professional in, to fix. Now you know what one of the number 1 issues in Oxford right now, in managing properties for property managers is?

Bradley Ramsey: I would say clogged drain.

Rocky Leflore: No. 80% of calls are go over to a condo or an apartment and change a light bulb.

Bradley Ramsey: I was going to say that, but I was afraid too because I didn’t want to admit how dumb my society is.

Rocky Leflore: It’s absolutely ridiculous, that kids can’t even freaking change a light bulb.

Bradley Ramsey: That’s so horrible. You know the only other trade I would add to that, especially for us southerners is, H.V.A.C., and that’s kind of a combination of plumbing and electrical. If you can learn H.V.A.C., you’ll hate summertime, you will hate June through August, more than you do now. But the money those folks make for what they do, worth every penny of it, but they can write their own ticket.

Rocky Leflore: Oh man. All of you – The business you want, just simple little things. Maybe installing or fixing up a plug or installing a switch, or hanging a light, or fixing up a stop line as a plumber. I’m saying, just get the basic and just be Handyman Joe, and be able to fix pretty much any of these minor things. I mean, you will never run out of money. I’m just going to a restaurant with my uncle, one time. He’s a one of the higher ups, at a big construction company, down in Greenwood. We’re walking in this Mexican restaurant and we were sitting at the table, he said, you see that guy over there, in his overalls? I said, yeah, that old nasty, greasy looking guy. He said, man, he’s one of the wealthiest men around here. I said, what are you talking about? He said, he’s a plumber. He said, he’s one of the only people in the world, that doesn’t mind fooling the crap.

Bradley Ramsey: Yeah. All right.

Rocky Leflore: He really actually never touches, if he has a couple of Hispanics that worked for him, they touch it. He just tells them what to do. But he might as well be printing money out of his house.

Bradley Ramsey: Like I said. Whatever I have to pay my plumber, when the toilet issues start, it’s worth every penny of it. And when you have 2 daughters, and a wife, and a young boy, toilet issues seem to be – It grows exponentially, by the number of women and by the number of children you have in your home.

Rocky Leflore: Oh man. Worst toilet issue ever. First year marriage, I’ll say this, middle of duck season had 6 doctors in, and 1 guy that was in his room all by himself, and you’ve heard me talk about it on this podcast before. When I first started off my career, I had a connection into the manufacturers that make mobile – Trailer house, let’s just say it. I had a 5-bedroom, double wide trailer. But I had a connection, so I bought it for 10% above cost, it was very cheap to be able to buy and have it for lodging for my hunting business, that I just started. So anyway, these doctors really, really uppity-uppity, copen doctors are there. They’re in 2 different bedrooms, 3 in each bedroom, then this one senior gentleman, was in a room by himself. Now why, somewhere during the night? He decided – I don’t know, if he slept walked, or when it happened, but he decided that he was going to flush a pill bottle, down the toilet. Well, it made it to the pipes. There must have been a huge pill bottle. It stopped the whole line up in the house, and so, there is water, about 04:30 that morning, when I got up to get everybody up, there’s water backing up everywhere. Are you talking about a bad feeling when your pots are backing up and you get a bunch of uppity doctors at your lodge, that have already got their finger in the air, drinking the wine, I can’t believe that we’re eating a regular grade a rib eye type doctor?

Bradley Ramsey: Yeah, and you’re going to put them up in a wobbly box. I mean, you know.

Rocky Leflore: It’s not a good feeling, when you wake up and you walk through water because you know it’s not coming from the air conditioner, there’s only one place he can be coming from. Any time in your home, when your foot gets wet when it’s not supposed to, it’s a bad thing.

“I like to wear my socks around the house, and when that wet comes through my sock and hits my foot, it’s like, well, this is not going to get better. You’ve never stepped in a puddle and go, oh wow, there’s a puddle here. There’s no thrill in that moment.”

Bradley Ramsey: I like to wear my socks around the house, and when that wet comes through my sock and hits my foot, it’s like, well, this is not going to get better. You’ve never stepped in a puddle and go, oh wow, there’s a puddle here. There’s no thrill in that moment.

Rocky Leflore: That’s hilarious because we all do that dance when we step in a puddle. We don’t know if it’s, pee, poop, just water. You know, you lips put up, oh man. There’s nothing worse than stepping it or dog puke. I do not have animals in my house anymore, for the simple reason of accidents. I used to when I was a single guy, I let my retriever that, Kit, which many of you heard me talk about before Kit stayed in the house, she was one of those dogs that was 100% in the field, and when we got back to the house, she’d lay right under my feet – The ideal retriever. Kit would have back to the shift, eat some of the grass wasn’t supposed to, puke in the middle of the night, and you get out of the bed, and you step in it and you do the – I called it the Mississippi Jig, where you have got a foot in the air and you’re spinning around.

Bradley Ramsey: I often try to find something to wipe it off on, that your wife won’t scream at you about. Oh, I’ve got one that does that. I mean brawl hides are not allowed in my house at all because one of my dogs, if she gets one, it’s not if you’re going to vomit, she’s going to, and she’s not going to do it during the middle of the day, it’s going to be in the middle of the night, and I can hear – I’m a sound sleeper Rocky, but the sound of a dog getting ready to vomit, can pull me out of the most beautiful dream in the world. Yeah, I mean, and I’m picking up, a 60lbs Labrador and heading for something tile because my best print was carpeted.

Rocky Leflore: In every dog, just like a human, they’re going to get diarrhoea every once in a while, and you can’t get up fast enough to get them out. But is there anything colder on your foot in this world, than a fresh stepped in a pile of diarrhoea? It is cold and it is awful.

Bradley Ramsey: You know, someone eventually, is going to explain to me what it is about men – Particularly duck hunting men, that if we talk long enough, we’re going to eventually get around to the subject of poop, whether it’s ours, or our dogs, or our Children. That subject just going to come up, if we talked long enough.

Rocky Leflore: Oh, hey, well look, coming up today with Ramsey Russell, one of your favourite topics, and I know that you’ve got actually a podcast coming up with him in a couple of weeks, but Ramsey killed a couple of Jack Miner bands and –

Bradley Ramsey: We went up there, up close to them. Yeah.

Rocky Leflore: And it’s a pretty neat little story. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but he actually went to the facility where they banded them. He talks a little bit about it, and he’s been stomping on him pretty hard. It’s pretty fun to listen to Ramsey’s travels, of him, going around Canada – He’ll be up there to the 1^st of October or so. But –

Bradley Ramsey: We can all live vicariously through him.

Rocky Leflore: Oh, heck yeah. This man – It’s 89 degrees here today and I think it’s cooled off up there. Rob Cruise’s even up there right now. Talk about Rob Cruise.

Bradley Ramsey: Yeah, he’s up there, beating on brown ducks.

Rocky Leflore: All right. Well Bradley, I’ve enjoyed it. Whoever – Listen, when Bradley – I’ll say this, before I get to the podcast with Ramsey. Bradley and I never plan anything. When we get together, it always goes so well, we don’t even say, hey, this is what it’s going to be about today. We just get in here, and wherever it goes, that’s what we’re going to talk about.

Bradley Ramsey: I can’t imagine what could be like share a blind with you this year Rocky, but I’m looking forward to it.

Rocky Leflore: We may not get a duck shot.

Bradley Ramsey: And that’s just fine too. We need those days also.

“All right, well bud, go get a nap because I know you’re worn out and, we’ll get to that story with Ramsey now.”

Rocky Leflore: All right, well bud, go get a nap because I know you’re worn out and, we’ll get to that story with Ramsey now. All right guys like I told you on the front end of the podcast, Ramsey Russell is joining us today, and Ramsey you are out on the road, a long way from home, aren’t you?

“I’m sitting on a hill top in Miller, Saskatchewan, and I swear if I squint hard enough, I can probably see Mississippi from up here, but what I can see as far as I can see, is just, man, patches of bright yellow poplars, and swath fields of peas, and barley, and wheat, and down below me about a 200-acre lake, just loaded with geese. Yeah, so – Hey man, I’m glad to be here.”

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I’m a long way from home Rocky. I’m sitting on a hill top in Miller, Saskatchewan, and I swear if I squint hard enough, I can probably see Mississippi from up here, but what I can see as far as I can see, is just, man, patches of bright yellow poplars, and swath fields of peas, and barley, and wheat, and down below me about a 200-acre lake, just loaded with geese. Yeah, so – Hey man, I’m glad to be here.

Rocky Leflore: All right. So, what day did you leave out? Let’s walk through this story, step by step. What day did you leave out last week?

Ramsey Russell: That’s a good – What day is it now? Man, I left 8 or 9 days ago. I’ve been talking to some friends. I’m in Saskatchewan, I’m going to Alberta, I’m going to Manitoba, just doing some media stuff, working with US hunt list outfitters, and catching up with them, and doing that kind of stuff. We proof everything we worked with, so we can talk first-hand about it, and I had talked to some friends, about coming up to Ontario and hunting their opener, and that kind of worked out because I’m going to pick up a new lab puppy in Indiana. All the way to practically get a dog, that far away from home. It’s either drive up there and get it, you can hardly ship in cargo no more. And then round open weekend of dove season – Man, looks have been 250, 300 geese sitting on the guy’s field, right from the blind, and he called me up suddenly, he said, man, the farmer works the field, there’s a wheat field, he said, he worked and the geese aren’t there right now, I’ll keep you posted. Well, come around – When I went to bed, Monday night, I said, well, I guess I’ll just leave Thursday, to be up there Sunday night in Saskatchewan, and I got up, fixed myself a cup of coffee, so I can watch the news. Tuesday morning got a text. It said, the geese are back on the field, you need to come up. And I sat there about 10 minutes, thinking about it, and I bust into the bedroom, started packing. My wife’s like, what’s going on? Where you going? I said, I’m going to Canada. I have got to go now, and 3 hours later, I was on the road. There was just enough time, to drive all the way to Indiana, which is a long drive – About 11, 12 hours, it took me and stay in a hotel, pick up this puppy and then drive 6 hours on end to Kingsville, Ontario. You know, I’ve always wanted to shoot a minor band. A lot of people may not know what it is, but I do, and the opportunity to go and hunt that area, with that history, was very, very tempting, especially on open day of Canada, and see. But you run into a lot of those birds that are banded early, minor band. They’re either hold overs, from the previous year, or they’re kind of like, their breeding right there, in that part of Ontario, and the big change up is well, right this time of year, when you start getting these fronts. You start having a big influx of moult migrators, which if anything else, just a lot more geese. A lot of dumb good birds because they’re new, but it dilutes your chances of getting the band. So, man, that was just a huge opportunity, that really and truly turned into a step back in time, in history, that I just didn’t expect. I drove all that way, I was whipped, I was tired from driving, got there that night, we had a few drinks, we grilled out, met a lot of locals and started hearing a lot of the local stories. Just imagine Rocky, if you live in a little town of whatever – That side of Brandon, Mississippi and somebody, since 1904, had been catching and a banding lots of birds, and turn them loose in your area.

Rocky Leflore: Imagine you have lingered full of bands.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, buckets, and buckets, and buckets, and buckets. These guys have got full of bands, and buckets of them, they’ve got. And then you start hearing these crazy stories, about like – There are people, I heard buyers, eBay type businessmen, that will come, and hit all the garage sales, and meet the locals, and go to coffee shop, network in the Lion’s Club, whatever they have got to do to find people, that don’t realize what they have got. I heard a story, about somebody going to garage sale and saying, you don’t have any Jack Miner band, do you know? Guy goes, oh yeah, I have got bunches of them, and comes out with like these great, big, gallon sized boulder cans, full of minor bands, dating back to the 50s and 60s, and the guy goes, what do you want for them? He goes, oh well, it’s just a bunch of aluminium, I guess I’ll take $20. There’s something for a lot. It’s really crazy to me, that there’s even that kind of fine arts and jewellery type value, in an aluminium band. But there is, and like for example, my host, he said, I got something for you, and we’re sitting there, drinking cocktails and he gave me a duck band and a goose band, that had been harvested, off a goose and a duck in 1966 – My birth year. Come to find out, that’s kind of a big deal, is to have a Jack Miner band with your birth year. Because what they do is, they have got band numbers on it, but then they hand stamp 66, somewhere on the bands, that they know, they’re recordkeeping. Bird that was banded in 66, and the guy told me – He said, look, Ramsey, don’t sell those, I don’t want to give them to you, if you’re going to sell them. I go, I’m not going to sell them. What are they worth? He goes, about 600 bucks. I go, are you kidding? He goes, a piece. I said, well, I am not going to sell them, but if ever get a band, I might. My God, thank you very much. But you always see just the ropes of these Jack Miner bands. I’ve met people over the years of course, that have shot them. I’ve never killed one further down the flower, but you know who I remember killing one, was Harden Phillips, we talked about before. Harden was in Bolivar County, Mississippi, hunting with Mark Edwards. I think that’s probably a season or two, before he passed, and he had shot a Jack Miner band. So, the opportunity to drive up, and hunt for a day and a half, and get a crack at these – We show up the first day, and Rocky, I show up to Ontario, wearing shorts and a T-shirt because it was hot when I left home and man, it was hot when I got here. It was 92 degrees, and we went out that day – A big festive event like opening day of duck season in Mississippi. Everybody was out in the fields. I didn’t hear a shot, that first morning. We had one group of 4 birds, break off and kind of work a sign, and going over to the sanctuary, about a mile and a half away. I said, well, there’s my chance, I guess, and 2 of the guys weren’t coming back, but my host said, well, Ramsey, do you want to hunt again in the morning? I’m like, heck yeah, I’m 20 hours closer to it, than I am in Mississippi or anywhere else for that matter. So, I don’t have anything else to do. So, we went out the next morning, and the wind – It rained that night and the wind come out of north, it was cooler, it was down in the 70s, 80s, maybe. Nice 70s, to start the morning, and right off the bat -I’m going to say early, we heard some geese across the field and looked and they would be lined up for us, and as they got kind of working over the spread, they split – Apparently like 2 cohorts and they split, and some of them started laying right in front, someone started laying behind it, and as they were just kind of stroking, and trying to just backstroking, trying to find a place to land, my host said, shoot the furthest bird, which was 25 yards. He said, should start with that furthest bird, he’s banded. Boom, I shot. Boom, boom, I shot 2 more. He reached over to the far right, where some of the birds are trying to land behind us, and shot a bird. His was naked – All 3 of mine were double banded. They had a big minor band on one leg, and a Fish and wildlife service band on the other.

Rocky Leflore: Holy crap.

“I’m like, well heck, I’m ready to go, and good 07:30, 08:00 in the morning, mission accomplished. But we stuck it out and he said, I hate you have to drive today because with this weather, the moult migrators are really going to be flying.”

Ramsey Russell: I was ready to go. I’m like, well heck, I’m ready to go, and good 07:30, 08:00 in the morning, mission accomplished. But we stuck it out and he said, I hate you have to drive today because with this weather, the moult migrators are really going to be flying. I said, well, I get it, but I do got of a long drive ahead, and we stayed until about 10:00 that morning, and we did have some birds come in, some more birds. We shot some more geese and they were all naked, they were moult migrators. And you know, the way – What I call a moult migrator Rocky, is a big deal. Because these birds, that come up and best, these birds fly back up north and they settle into the nesting areas, and about the time all the breeding birds produce clutches and geese, don’t hatch out on dry land and walk to a body of water. The goslings are flightless. Well, the parents become flightless, they moult. And so, the whole family unit starts to become flight able together. By the time that the goslings are ready to fly, mom and daddy grow their flight further back, and all the non-breeding birds at that point, when all that’s going on, they all pick up and they fly further north. Lot of times up into Canada, and it’s not just geese, the ducks do it also. I know that if there’s a major public lake down in, southeast Saskatchewan called Foam Lake, and it’s just a historical, moult migrator lake for mallards. A lot of these mallards, non-breeding mallards, will fly out there, predominately drakes, will fly up and begin to moult, and then they’ll fly back south. So, about this time of year, around Labour Day, a lot of these moult migrators start to fly back and pick back up where they started. As all the loose flocks are beginning to aggregate in the migratory formation, and begin staging. And of course, the day I left, we came back to town, and packed up and left, had breakfast and called a few friends. They went back out and shot about 20 birds that day, 35 the next day. Because the migrations on now, and I mean, while I drove to Saskatchewan, up here with Mat Schauer, Northern Skies Outfitters, and hunted here last year and loved it. I’ve got some clients up here. Of course, I walk into camp, there’s already a few clients there I didn’t know. They were US hunt list clients. They had found this hunt through US hunt list. There were father-sons, a couple of young ladies from California, and they were in camp, having a great time. So, we all just threw it together and – It’s just a remarkable time to be in Canada. We’re a little early, I’ll say this. If I were going to plan a trip of a lifetime and come to Canada, it would probably be mid-September through the end of October. I like to come a little earlier. It just fits my calendar better. I like to explore, to change. I guess that’s really what I love about this area. Like right now, just since I’ve been here in the last 3 or 4 days, the snow geese are starting to really pile in to Canada. You know, they’re really starting to show up.

Rocky Leflore: Oh, Mat – I bet he loves that. Mat loves that.

Ramsey Russell: He loves them. And he’s good at it, man. These guys are so good at what they do. I know he’s not the only guy, but they’re very good at what they do. We’ll go out on some days and set up on dark geese, they call them, and we’ll go out some days and set up on light geese, we’ll go out some days and set up on both. The first day we were here – I think it’s right. The first morning we had a really, really fun hunt for big Canada geese, and little cacklers and a few speckle bellies. Shot a few ducks, in the little morning flurry, and then yesterday morning, they had found the field, they were excited about. There were a lot of snows on it, and as many snows are showing up right now, you can’t just see a field full of snows and go out and hunt them because new birds showing up and they’re just hopping around, hopping around, hopping around, and what you have see is white geese out in the field. You drive by and say you know 400, 500, 600 white geese, whatever, you see a number of white geese, you drive by the next day and you see them. You come back the next day and see them, whatever. Well, then you come by one day and all of a sudden, they’re building and that’s when you want to hit that field. When you see those flocks starting to build, you know they’re keyed into it and they’re going to start pulling more of those loose flocks into them, and that’s when you want to hit that feed, is when they’re building. So, we went out yesterday and – God, I hate hunting in the rain. Ducks fly good, geese up here in Canada just kill it on a rainy day. But I just hate wet hunting, you know? But we went out, it was muddy, we loaded up the rig, they got a side-by-side Yamaha, and man we put all kinds of decoys and gear on it and rode out in that field, and set up, and 10 minutes before shooting time, you could tell this is going to be one of those days. It was clouds of pintails, and mallards, and light geese and dark geese, and we were just ticking off the minutes. Finally, shooting time, and we had a real quick flurry, 5 or 10 minutes, nonstop of ducks. They kind of butted out and the geese started coming in and it was magical. There were there were flocks of snows, and we run an almost entirely white spread. We had just a few little patches of Canadas and ahead on a E-collar, which you can run over white birds – For you a white bird E-collar, with over a white spread, and those birds would start to spin and just like you see or you imagine, I mean they fly over and one flock, then get another, and another and that flock will start to spin, and they spin down wind. The next thing you know, you’ve got 400 or 500, light geese maple leaf and everyone, I mean just dumping as quick as they can, and coming right into the spread and it was it was horrific. It was really a lot of fun, and you know something that blows my mind Rocky, while we’re talking about snow geese. We had a long conversation last night, everybody at the table, we had some guys in Louisiana, California, Mississippi, Tennessee, and then farmer, one of the locals up here, and then the outfitters and we got to talking about snow geese, sky carp, and it’s the craziest thing. What I truly believe, is that people that accept, and promote that snow geese or sky carp, I honestly believe – 1, they can’t cook, or 2, they don’t want to clean ducks or too lazy to clean ducks and geese, or 3, they just don’t know better because up here, that is the prize bird. These birds are fat, their meat, it’s got a lot of fat in it. They’re absolutely delicious, and I don’t believe you could taste the difference in a speckled belly, or a pin tail, or a Canada goose. The one bird up here, that nobody wants – It’s like, the farmers will take them, but they really don’t want them, are the great big Canada geese. They just don’t want them. You know, they don’t have as much fat, they’re tougher, but they all want the snow geese. Jen here – Mat’s wife here, at camp, my gosh, she could turn anybody into a snow goose and food. She knows how to cook, and she has cooked some stuff, with these snow geese, that is just unbelievable. It’s crazy because one of the clients here this week, has been in the fine restaurant business, for 20 years and he’s said, Ramsey, I would serve this at any restaurant, I’ve ever managed, as an entree. He said that about every dish we’ve had. So, we got in the snow geese really good, we shot some Canada’s, in fact, we were just a few away from full limits on dark geese, and I think we’re 1 or 2 away on light goose limits, which for 6 people, is a slug of bird. There are more birds than anybody wanted to carry, I can tell you that. Anyone strapped, nobody wanted to carry. And then we had a fair amount of ducks. This morning we went out and got about a half limit morning, but you know, it’s one of those mornings. We had driven by that field, they had showed us, somewhere yesterday, along the way that side of the field we’re going to hunt, was just loaded with dark geese, specks, and big Canada’s and little Canada’s, and the geese were just piled up thick in there. And then this morning, absolutely zero wind, none. No wind, whatsoever, and we did have some birds dump in pretty good. But usually what they do, is they get above us and stall, they were just – Like a rudderless ship on the ocean. You know, they were aimlessly just – After a while they bugger out there. For some reason, just having that wind, and set up a formation and give them a landing zone, it’s how you really command the ducks and the geese, and this morning, they just had too many choices. They would come in from the left and right, from behind us, or in front of us, any angle on the clock, and it made for some difficult shooting. But it also gave the birds too much time to think about it, before they committed. But still, it was a great hunt. Nobody’s complaining, I’ll tell you that, we had a wonderful time.

Rocky Leflore: Where are you headed from – I should say, where are you headed to, from there?

Ramsey Russell: Well, I’m going to leave here, probably Friday morning. I’m going to hunt tomorrow morning, and clean up, maybe wash a few clothes and then, I’m maybe going to spend the night here, go to Saskatoon and grab a room, and midday Friday, I’m going to meet Brennan Hudson, with Alberta Waterfowl Outfitters, in Alberta. You know, he’s got a – Kind of, between where I’m at right now in Saskatchewan, and where Brennan is located, is the ephemeral artery of the speckled belly migration. If those birds are coming off the arctic, they kind of go through the stem of a funnel, and they come right through this little narrow area, that’s just into the west side of Saskatchewan, and just into the east side of Alberta, and they followed right through this little area, and man, Brennan’s having a great season over there, it’s going to be very similar hunting to here. There will be a lot of speckled bellies this time of year, there’ll be a few light geese, and a lot of big Canadas, and cackling geese and a lot of ducks. So, I’m going to go and spend a few days with Brennan and have a good time hunting with him. People ask me – I had a guy riding with me this morning, we’re doing a lot of stuff on our Instagram, those storylines, just the whole process – Getting up, and setting out decoys, and hunting, and if you kill volleys, and some post hunt photos, and breakfast, and then the afternoon hunts and the whole process – Telling the whole story with pictures and little videos, and stuff, and a lot of guys will write me up and say, man, I’m want to go in the best hunt. I’m like, well, you call any of these guys, that we work with up here in Canada, I vouch for them, I think they’re great people, I said, but you know, the reason we have choices, is because you should call them, and talk to them and see what dates they have, they both sell out well in advance, I mean both these guys, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, and Manitoba for that matter – They’re selling out, way in advance. If I were going to target specs, expect from my thing and understand, that dark goose limit in Western Canada, is 8 daily. It can be up to 8 Canada Geese – Those Canada and cacklers, but no more than 5 speckle bellies. And we’ve done that here in Saskatchewan, but I really think he’s got a stronghold on it over there, in that part of Alberta. I think he’s really got a good, good handle on hunting white front geese, and they both got very, very strong programs, and again, you’ve heard me say it before. I don’t think it’s just about the trigger pulling, of course, everybody knows your coming up this far you birds. But what I look at, what I’ve learned, if I hadn’t learned anything over 17 years is, beyond the trigger pulling, there needs to be a good, strong, organized program intact, hospitality and caregiving to you, good food, good accommodations, a lot of comfort. Both of them have very inclusive programs and all the guys we work with in here, in Canada right now Rocky, it’s basically show up with your shotgun, and your favourite post hunt libation and you’re good to go. Licenses are included, ammos are included, the word. Just show up – Bird process and whatever, just show up and you’ll have a good time.

Rocky Leflore: Well, I’ll tell you this, it’s good to hear that the snow geese are moving south because that tells me that migration is getting ready, to head this way, we’ll and shoot – Just 3 months. That old map, man. They’re killing those snows, all the way up into May. But my uncle from Mississippi, actually goes up there May and hunts with them on that hunt. Man, they’re catching them right before they get hold and –

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Rocky Leflore: And my aunt – She gives my uncle such a hard time, going up there and shooting those geese, right before they get home. You know, it’s so funny to listen to them talk about that hunt. She’s like, don’t you know, they can see their house and you’re shooting them right before they get home, like, look, there’s home and boom, you get shot. Just hearing them are – I’m sorry to imitate a bad imitation of my aunt, but it’s so funny to listen to them because – Anyway, back to the hunt with my uncle. When I talked to him about it, they’ll hunt all the way up till, gosh, it stays light until 10:00 or 11:00 at night, and then they’re back up at 03:00 in the morning. Because they get daylight at like 04:30 AM in May. He said it’s crazy, but it is fun, fun, fun. They kill the crap.

Ramsey Russell: Here it is.

“I looked it up while we were talking. How many bands do you think would fit in a coffee can? That’s what I was going to say.”

Rocky Leflore: I looked it up while we were talking. How many bands do you think would fit in a coffee can?

Ramsey Russell: I have no idea Rocky, I would say, gosh, 300.

Rocky Leflore: That’s what I was going to say. That was my number in my head, 300. On average $200 apiece for a Jack Miner band. That is a lot of money. $16,000, sitting in the coffee can.

Ramsey Russell: I’m telling you, buddy. Let me get back on the Jack Miner story. We got talking about snow geese, and this Jack Miner story is the highlight of the week. So anyway, I go out, I shoot my bands, but now the guy had given me a couple of bands, and then I go out and shoot a few bands, you know? So, I’m like, wow, this is amazing. He said, you may want these. So, like every year they have like a little festival over there and they give away these commemorative bands but they’re not rolled up, they’re flat. Just a flat piece of metal it looks like a little silver burden or something you put on the trophy and had the Jack Miner Foundation and the scripture on it – The Bible verse, and that was a very distinct thing about Jack Miner. He started bands back in 1904. He was a religious guy. His worldview was very religious and they were saying – I read a little bit of history on him and they were saying that there were geese in the area back in the day. But that one day, he had this bright idea, and he called or somehow came into about a dozen Canada geese and pinioned them and put them out on one of his legs to start attracting more wild geese, and then he’d go out and catch a few of them and band them. And because of his religious background, his religious foundation he would hand stamp his name, and in town and hand stamp a bible verse and turn it loose. And if you read up on it you realize that this guy was doing it when nobody else really – Where the federal government wasn’t banding birds but based on a lot of his day the first bird he ever banded in Ontario was recovered, in South Carolina. And he would get letters from a priest, up at the Inuit Indians, way up north in Canada, Hudson Bay type area, had brought to the priest to get interpreted and they would contact him about these birds. He kind of put together enough understanding of Canada goose migration to become involved at some level into the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. And a lot of his, the fact that he was getting this information and doing this kind of stuff is when, Canadian Wildlife Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service kind of got that. They’re like, hey, maybe we could do this to other species of waterfowl and start having a gaining and understanding of their migratory habits, and their habitat needs and things of that nature. So, you think of think, well man, this must be just a big old place. Well, when you go down to the sanctuary, it’s just a little old bitty home, that was his. And now they’ve really expanded the park. They’ve got a little pavilion where you climb up and go look over of pond water to these birds but back behind his house and another little dugout pond, and I mean Rocky, I don’t mean 20 acres I mean an acre and a half, two-acre pond, and most of it is under the big tall framed up telephone pole in the centre of it and the middle of it is a bunch of corn cobs, harvested corn not shelled just thrown out in there and the geese will land in the backyard. They just landed in a little pond in the backyard and swim up and start eating, and when the caretaker sees that, there’s enough birds for a drop, mallard, or ducks, or geese. He goes and drops his net and it doesn’t fall on the birds and stress them out like, a cannon would, it’s just these walls of netting fall down and then he walked up in the pen, and bewilder like they are, they kind of run into little cattle chutes and get into a little catch box, and the doors on the catch box can be shut and the staff can then go and catch them out and band them. So, my host had given me these commemorative bands, these little plaques, these little bitty flattened out bands. You know, they hand out to people as commemorative every year and I said, you know what? What if I could roll these? He goes, oh yeah. We’ll call Joe over there and we’ll just go roll them. I go, really? So, we go up to the shop, we meet Joe. Joe’s been there for 30 years, and he’s all, yeah, let me show you how to roll these things, and they got this little bitty press that’s generations old. This tiny little press, you just stick the band in, you turn it a half loop, it catches, you turn it again, you pull it off, boom we got a roll band. And if you’ve ever seen a Jack Miner band, it is not like a Fish and Wildlife Service band. It’s like the band but how they put them on, it’s different than in the US Fish and Wildlife Service protocol, like on the geese –

Rocky Leflore: It actually looks like something out of a, I would imagine out of the medieval days.

“And if you look at their duck bands – You know, I’ve banded ducks in 2001 with US Fish and Wildlife Service. We banded about 8000 ducks here in Saskatchewan and they were the art of science, just getting it to close perfectly round and snap in place, but they overlap theirs.”

Ramsey Russell: Well, if the band is probably twice as tall a federal ban, they don’t use the same size bands That US Fish and Wildlife Service uses like a size 7 goes on a mallard, a size 8 goes on the Canada goose, a size 4 goes on a green wing teal. You know they don’t use those numbers like that but, they take a similar diameter band but the way they crimp that band on a goose, it looks like a capital D. Not a perfect circle, it’s a capital D. Which if you look at a goose’s leg, is not a circle, it’s kind of like a D. And he said, old man minor used to dispute, putting a round band on a D shaped leg and they crimp it twice – They push the tab together, and then they crimp it again, to form a D shape against that goose leg and they believe, that their bands wear differently and last longer, and if you look at their duck bands – You know, I’ve banded ducks in 2001 with US Fish and Wildlife Service. We banded about 8000 ducks here in Saskatchewan and they were the art of science, just getting it to close perfectly round and snap in place, but they overlap theirs. The tabs of those bands overlapped and I never get to hunt with ones. I was hunting public land with Dan Moulder, if you all remember Dan Moulder – Duck Man is what he called himself on the duck board back in the day. M.S. Duck Man, and we were hunting and he walked out to get a duck Delta was over there getting another duck and he went out to get a duck and came back and said, well look at here, look at here, and when he held that duck up, not knowing I had band that duck in US Fish and Wildlife Service, when he held that duck leg up, I saw that the tabs were overlapping and my heart skipped a beat. I said oh my gosh, I just killed a Jack Miner band and he handed it to me. Well, it was a sucker band he had put on there and I still got it on the langer. I just appreciated the joke, but it made my heart skip a beat because, when I saw the way that it was just kind of pinched together like that I said, oh my gosh, I finally killed the check by the band, and it was just a practical joke – It was a sucker band. But that’s the way they band those birds. And so, I got to go and we made turn some on that old press and I got the full unadulterated tour, of Jack Miner and I wrapped a bunch of those commemorative bands just to give people, I’ll get home and I know my kids will appreciate one and different stuff and he gave me a couple of blank bands, just like real duck bands. He said, how many kids you got? I said, 3, he said, what’s their birthday? Their birth year, we’ll stamp their date on here, if you don’t call the band in but it’ll be a nice little try for them. It was just like to step back in history and get to experience that, and just to put your hands on. I mean, how many times did the 3 generations of Miners turn that press and roll those bands? How many times did they do that? Put your hands on that press and turn, it was kind of fun. You know, you just step back in history. So, it’s been a remarkable trip, I really enjoyed that. Getting to see and do that. When we come back with a bunch of cool bands too, but the story.

Rocky Leflore: So, you’re going to be back in a couple of weeks, right?

Ramsey Russell: I’ll be back, I will be home. I’m going from Alberta to stop by and see some friends in Saskatchewan on a buddy hunt and then I’m going over to Manitoba to Hunt with Kris Wujcik, Mitchitoba Outfitters and we’ve got some guests coming in. You all watch his website because he’s got some kind of live hunt or something going on. I still don’t understand what he’s doing but he wants me to be there for it and then I’m going stop by and hunt with Matthew Piehl and company, just some other friends in North Dakota. It kind of catch their first week of North Dakota. It’s on the way home so I might as well, is what they told me. I’ll be home late into September, 1^st of October. So, for the next few weeks as we talk, we’ll be talking about parts of Canada, I hope you don’t mind.

Rocky Leflore: No. Heck no, there’s a lot of fun. Well Ramsey we’re out of time I mean you did good today. You timed it perfectly. So, I really enjoyed listening, about the Jack Miner band. If you don’t know or understand a lot about Jack Miner band and you love duck hunting, you need to read up on it. It is one of the coolest deals in duck hunting. The ducks that they’re being – I know Bradley Ramsey’s got a podcast with him coming up here in the next couple of weeks. But anyway, you need to go do a little research, on the Jack Miner bands and Ramsey gave you a lot of information today. But Ramsey, thank you again. We want to thank all of you that listen to this edition of the End of the Line Podcast, powered by DuckSouth.com.

[End of Audio]

LetsTranscript Transcription Services

www.letstranscript.com