LIFE’S SHORT GETDUCKS: IN THE SOUTH AFRICA DUCK BLIND

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to The End of The Line podcast, I’m Rocky Leflore in the Duck South Studios in Oxford, Mississippi joining me from all the way on across the world. I guess it’s probably halfway across the world. Jake Latendresse, Ramsey Russell and Ryan Bassham. All right, so let me just say this before all of you jump in here

just from watching the videos and the stories, videos on Facebook stories on Instagram, it looks like one of those trips where you’re already behind on sleep as it is because of the time difference but jet lag, I guess is the term. But also it looks like one of those trips where you literally walk in when the day is over and you just fall on your bed and you don’t remember anything until you wake up the next morning.

“That would be very accurate. I’m running in caffeine.”

Ryan Bassham: That would be very accurate. I’m running in caffeine.

“I’ve been here for a week, I’m adopted to the time. These guys were walking around passing out backseat of truck and jet lag for the first couple of days but I think we’re all going with it now. But it is a – at least duck hunters, Rocky we’re up, I’m waking up at 03:30 drinking coffee and we’re rolling and they can shoot, we go out in the afternoon, they can shoot legally until 30 minutes past sunset which is pitch black dark, can’t see no more.”

Ramsey Russell: I’ve been here for a week, I’m adopted to the time. These guys were walking around passing out backseat of truck and jet lag for the first couple of days but I think we’re all going with it now. But it is a – at least duck hunters, Rocky we’re up, I’m waking up at 03:30 drinking coffee and we’re rolling and they can shoot, we go out in the afternoon, they can shoot legally until 30 minutes past sunset which is pitch black dark, can’t see no more. And then we got a 30 minute drive back to camp to eat dinner. So, I mean it is a full day.

Rocky Leflore: I remember doing that a lot of afternoons back in the old days.

Jake Latendresse: And just to be clear I do not go to bed when I get home, I have to dump footage and organize folders in the hard drive and get all that done. That usually takes about an hour, hour and a half. So I usually crack me a beer and sit down at my computer and get back to work.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah. I mean, I don’t mind to do all the camera stuff but shoot for me work hard, play hard, crack open the computer work a little bit but yeah.

Ramsey Russell: We can sleep on the long flight home, that’s a fact.

Ryan Bassham: That’s right.

Jake Latendresse: You can sleep when you’re dead, right?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Rocky Leflore: I have always heard – I don’t know and I know a lot of people that go to South Africa on different hunting trips but that flight for some reason is one of the worst flights. You can go anywhere else in the world, but to South Africa it just seems like it takes forever. Which one was worse? Because you all went to Australia together or South Africa?

Ramsey Russell: I think South Africa.

Jake Latendresse: Australia is a little bit further.

Ramsey Russell: True, but I don’t know. I agree with the South African trip. It’s just something about that flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. It’s the last 2 hours that get me. I’m fine the first 12, 13 hours it’s the last 2 hours that get me.

Ryan Bassham: For me it was Australia. Both. I’ve been to Australia and New Zealand on different trips and both times that one had my number for some reason.

Jake Latendresse: Pakistan isn’t exactly a puddle jump either. We’re all long, twice at the end of the day when you go halfway around the world, it’s just a long travel day.

Rocky Leflore: All right, well let’s play a little game before we start talking about the hunting. Who took a first class seat to South Africa? I’m going to say Ramsey did not. Am I right about that, Ramsey?

Ramsey Russell: You bet I didn’t. I did not. I saved my money for bullets.

Rocky Leflore: I’m going to say – look, this is not a bash on your character by any means because I’m telling you, I’m upgrading to first class. But this is – that long of a flight with my long legs, I’m going to first class, if it costs $600, $700, $800 more. Let’s see I’m going to say Ryan did not go first class.

Ryan Bassham: I did not. I’m in the rear with the gear baby.

Boom 2 for 2

Rocky Leflore: Let’s see if I can guess Jake. Jake did not. Jake is a door guy. He sits by the door in coach.

Jake Latendresse: I sat by Ryan Bassam and watched him sleep all the way to South Africa.

Ryan Bassham: I watched Jake sleep all the way to South Africa, every time I was awake he was asleep.

Rocky Leflore: All right Ryan, I know you go a lot. Jake first time to South Africa?

Jake Latendresse: No, this is my 3^rd time to South Africa but not for this and not where we are like, you’re probably going to want to get into what the landscape and habitat and environment was like at some point, so I won’t steal that thunder but this is definitely a lot different than what I have seen before.

Rocky Leflore: Hey what’s become normal to you all? As you step off the plane. That you noticed the first time? What’s just become normal as much as you all travel? For somebody like me that’s never been,

what would I stop and say wow man, that’s pretty cool. As we get on –

Ramsey Russell: I can answer that. O.R Tambo Airport in Johannesburg and I just got to share with you, the world’s largest Kentucky fried chicken, now think about that. It’s in Johannesburg Airport. That’s the first thing I noticed.

Rocky Leflore: That thing must be a giant then.

Ramsey Russell: It’s as big as a shopping mall back home.

Rocky Leflore: And the ride from the airport, how far are you all from Johannesburg?

Jake Latendresse: Right now, we’re two hours.

Ramsey Russell: Couple of hours. Yeah. Johannesburg is a big city. We’re out in the country, we’re out in the heart of agriculture now, is where we are. And when you step off the plane in Africa you realize you’re not in Kansas anymore. I mean, you’re somewhere different, at least I do. I noticed that.

Jake Latendresse: You are no longer in control.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Ryan Bassham: Exactly.

Rocky Leflore: As you look around the landscape, as you’re driving from the airport to where you’re going, what does it look like? What would you compare it to?

Ryan Bassham: I think it’s important to remember this is – go ahead, Ramsey go ahead.

Ramsey Russell: I was going to say the first morning we were hunting we got in position, pitch black dark sitting on the edge of a cornfield in between a standing cornfields and soybean field and it got light the birds, the Egyptian geese were coming off the roost decoyed behind us some 100 yards. And then we were pass shooting very traditional way they do it here and Jake goes, man, I just don’t feel like I’m in Africa. So, where you feel like you are? And he looks around and goes, it’s like I’m in Saskatchewan. And that really is what it – the country looks like around here where we’re hunting. It looks like Canada. We went on a big upland bird hunt behind pointers and man, these guys have got dog power like I’ve never seen. They could put out fresh dogs every 15 minutes. But we’re covering the ground and at times it really felt like you’re in part of northwest Kansas or Nebraska or somewhere like that. It was just incredible. But it doesn’t feel like Africa. Think of Africa as being the Kalahari Desert or the real push bailed thickets and acacia trees and this is Ag land. Saskatchewan was the perfect description for where we’ve been hunting.

Jake Latendresse: I think we said it in a post, it looks like Saskatchewan, it kind of feels like – so the landscape looks like Saskatchewan but the hunting is like Mexico or Argentina. That’s something – again, I don’t want to get too far ahead but that’s something that I think surprised all of us is how many freaking ducks there are down here to hunt.

Ryan Bassham: Right.

“Yeah, they do it right, but we’ve been coming to Africa – we’ve been selling Africa since 2012 and it’s a great hunt but I felt like it could be better. And so we organized this trip and it really is – I really believe that the wing shooting we’ve experienced the last 4 days live on Mexico and many parts of Argentina.”

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, they do it right, but we’ve been coming to Africa – we’ve been selling Africa since 2012 and it’s a great hunt but I felt like it could be better. And so we organized this trip and it really is – I really believe that the wing shooting we’ve experienced the last 4 days live on Mexico and many parts of Argentina. And the birds are exportable, so there’s that. But the shooting volume, the quality is as good practically anywhere.

Rocky Leflore: Most of the waterfowl that you’re shooting are local they don’t migrate, correct?

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. That’s exactly right. They just like a lot just like Australia and a lot of other countries, these local birds or nomadic, they move just enough to find water and food.

Rocky Leflore: Well, let’s talk about that first morning Ryan, Jake is the first time waterfowl hunting South Africa?

Jake Latendresse: Yeah. Seems like a month or so.

“I mean kind of like what we’ve alluded to already, it’s more old school British type hunting tactics and pass shooting and that’s how we set up. Ramsey was talking about how we set up on the edge of this cornfield and then back off the other side of us was the soybean field but we set out decoys. But man, those decoys were like 100 yards out from us and there was a rotary spinning handmade decoys, it’s all handmade decoys here, which is really neat.”

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, we haven’t been here that long but it feels like we’ve been here forever. It’s just jam packed days, man. And yeah that first morning not really knowing what to expect. I mean in any country that I’ve hunted for the first time, the waterfowl tactics as far as how you set up your decoys and strategy it all differs and this is no different. I mean kind of like what we’ve alluded to already, it’s more old school British type hunting tactics and pass shooting and that’s how we set up. Ramsey was talking about how we set up on the edge of this cornfield and then back off the other side of us was the soybean field but we set out decoys. But man, those decoys were like 100 yards out from us and there was a rotary spinning handmade decoys, it’s all handmade decoys here, which is really neat. And I’m sitting there thinking this ain’t going to work. We’re like a 100 plus yards from the decoys, I mean there’s no guarantee that they’re going to come right here to this flyway. But sure enough, man, it worked. And it was beautiful morning, you got this fog that was lifting up and sure enough, we each were spread out about 40 yards apart from each other and here they came and the shooting began and we were not disappointed, it was a fantastic morning. Another differentiating factor is the Egyptian geese that we’re hunting that first morning, there’s not a call manufacturers out there to where you can call these birds in. So that’s another variable you have to take into consideration. Okay, well I can’t call them, how am I going to make this successful? So great learning experience and an awesome way to see how they do it here.

Ramsey Russell: They’ve been watching these birds, they scout and scouting is integral to successful hunting anywhere. And where we were situated, there was a – it’s like a valley, like an area with a lot of pans they call it, pans are like natural lakes without a damn.

Ryan Bassham: And they’re like playas.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, very similar to playas but it’s a bunch of them out there big and little and they knew where the geese were and they’ve been watching them for several days and the geese had to come off the lake, they were roosted on and kind of come up over this big wide mile long hill that was planted in corn to get to the soybean field, they’ve been feeding in. So, they built these little stands in the standing corn for concealment and put the decoys just over the bean field and they felt like the birds were going to cue in on the decoys and come over the hunters and it worked like a charm, it absolutely worked like a charm and really you couldn’t step from standing on the edge of the corn field where I was, you didn’t see the geese coming, you might hear them but you didn’t see them until they were almost in a shooting range. And I would say they were 20 to 30 yards high, they were coming in right over the corn, plugging that corn coming over and it was fun. It was a lot of fun.

Rocky Leflore: What would you compare them to sound wise?

Ramsey Russell: They got kind of a growling sound at times, but I hear them honking just a course honk, it’s not just a honk. It reminds me of shell ducks, which interestingly enough, this Egyptian goose, big ugly thing really a lot of weight, but this Egyptian goose is probably not too distant cousin of Shell duck, it may not even be a goose, a lot of people believe it is more duck than a goose. First thing Jake said one saw one was, I don’t think it’s a goose, it’s really not. The Egyptians called them geese and burry them like some kind of sacred animal, but they’re probably a shell duck deviance. But they’re big like – I’d almost – they don’t sound as much like a cape shell ducks down here, we saw some today, you can’t shoot them in the province we were in this time of year, but they honk like the Australian teal ducks do. And the Egyptian geese don’t honk quite like that, but kind of sort of.

Jake Latendresse: It kind of sounds like a single note. Like a single note snow goose. I don’t know what other than that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Jake Latendresse: I was going to say earlier that, the one of the things that I really appreciate about when I get to go to these places with Ramsey and Ryan, it’s almost like going back in time as far as the hunting tactics go. And it goes back to the simplicity of hunting. And I think Americans would come over here and go, oh man, you’re doing this all wrong, you’re going to kill so many more if you do it this way. But Ryan and Ramsey and I, we talked about this before driving or sitting around or whatever during lunch or dinner and talked about how if we had it our way, we wouldn’t let these guys change a thing because it’s the experience and you get to come back and you get to come here and do these things like Ryan said, it’s kind of old school British tactics and it’s kind of fun. I mean it really is. It’s a change of pace, it’s not just set your decoys out and shoot them in your face. Don’t get me wrong, they’re shooting them in the face when they’re close with their feet down but sometimes past shooting and it’s just old school and I really like it. It just sort of liberates at least for myself, it liberates me from the standard, this is how you have to do it or you’re not a great duck hunter kind of deal.

Ramsey Russell: I love pass shooting, I love to shoot them over decoys coming in. And we were talking to Mike our host over here, next time we come over because we will, we want to sit in the decoys because these Egyptian geese works the decoys really well but it’s kind of hard to argue with the results of how we’ve been shooting them. I mean we couldn’t have possibly shot any more birds sitting in the decoy than we did. Did not possibly shot anymore.

Ryan Bassham: We absolutely wore them out the way we did it and it was great. But I agree. I mean next trip over man, I would like to try it our way so to speak.

Ramsey Russell: It reminds me of a saying Rocky, sometimes these birds will be kind of high, but it’s not sky busting if they’re falling but we all enjoyed.

Rocky Leflore: Well, I noticed that you are shooting a shell that will reach out and touch them.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And those big birds, we’re shooting lead 2 essentially what we’re shooting at the Egyptian geese and lead 5s at the regular ducks. And it will – you choke up right when it hits them, it makes an impact. It sure does.

Ryan Bassham: All right. And that’s the key. I mean, Ramsey saw me, I had to adjust my choke a couple different times in different areas over the last few days just depending on how we’re having to hunt them and I mean, it makes world difference, the shot we’re shooting over here works just fine.

Rocky Leflore: How often does that work out though? Being a guide for 21 years, I had people always come in and think that they knew and this is no way a slide at you all but they think that they knew how to shoot, “my ducks” better than I did. And it usually 90% of the time the hometown guide kind of knew what he was talking about.

Ryan Bassham: Oh yeah.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right.

Ryan Bassham: Absolutely.

Rocky Leflore: Never guide the guide.

Ryan Bassham: Exactly, that’s what we’re saying for sure. I mean, especially we’re playing by their rules, we’re on their turf, sit back, learn, enjoy it and learn something.

Ramsey Russell: That is the greatest thing about traveling.

Rocky Leflore: What’s the similarities that you see from those guys over there? We talked about this in Australia podcast last year. There’s so many connecting things that water fowlers have no matter where your place on this planet, there’s so many similarities that connect us all. What are some similarities that you see and what are some differences that you see?

Jake Latendresse: The dogs are different.

Ramsey Russell: The dogs are different, yeah, but they use dogs.

Jake Latendresse: They do.

Ramsey Russell: They use calls sometimes for these ducks and they use decoys when we’re duck hunting and they’re keen. They say, you guys in the States always come out with the cutting edge technology first, we find it over here sooner or later.

Jake Latendresse: I think that one of the strongest similarities that I’ve noticed of all the places we’ve gone to is, when you get into the water fowler’s domain, once we get to our hosts and our guides and whatever the desire to duck hunt is the same. And people – like I saw looking at a picture today on Instagram where someone had posted a picture of some duck hunters from 100 years ago and they were – all these ducks were stacked up on this old vehicle and two guys were standing there with their shotguns and someone made the comment, it’s funny that even 100 years ago, duck hunters were proud to have pictures, gripping grand pictures with big piles of ducks and I think that goes – that’s very similar wherever you go. People are proud when we get on them and we have a great day, they’re very proud of it, just like we are, it’s pretty cool.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, absolutely.

Rocky Leflore: Where does duck hunting rank? I know that there’s so many others species of animals to hunt in South Africa. Out of the outsiders or not even the outsiders, but you see what I’m getting at? How do they view water fowling there?

Jake Latendresse: It’s low on the totem pole.

“I think it’s lowest on the totem pole. Yeah, it’s very. The locals that I’m aware of don’t hunt them at all.”

Ramsey Russell: I think it’s lowest on the totem pole. Yeah, it’s very. The locals that I’m aware of don’t hunt them at all.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, no they don’t.

Ramsey Russell: But the guys we’re hunting with have got some of the most phenomenal English pointers and German short hair that I have ever seen. I mean, those dogs hunt. They let them out the other day and those dogs stay at heel until they get the word go. But they were literally vibrating, they were shaking to be told to go and hunt, but when they’re underfoot, they’re just like the calmest house dog you’ve ever seen. They are dog people and they’ve got the best personal retrievers I’ve ever seen, especially when you’re upland bird hunting. And that’s there – if they bird hunt South Africa and I think quite a few of them do, that’s more along their lines, grey Franklin, all the bird hunters I’ve met in South Africa in 3 trips I’ve been here there they hunt gray wing Franklin, that’s a big one or the Swainson Franklin. And I think quite a few of them like to shoot the decoy pigeons. The ducks and geese and they could care less about that. There’s not as culture there is back home.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, I know the upland thing here – and I mean if you think about it, you think about where these people descend from and I mean, that European culture upland bird hunting is more of that preferred thought that they would deal. And so that absolutely has within the wing shooting here in Africa that has a priority like Ramsey was saying over the waterfowl hunting and but you know the plains game species and a dangerous game species is what makes this economy run within the hunting industry here and that’s the king obviously. But I think what I’ve learned anyways, I can’t speak for Jake and Ramsey is, they’ve got such an incredible waterfowl hunting resource that it way exceeded my expectations. I thought we might shoot 5 or 10 ducks a day per person and let’s just say it went well beyond within reason of what our expectations were. So, they’ve got a pretty special thing here going on that’s not really tapped into yet.

Jake Latendresse: And our guide he knows his species. He understands what their habits are, he knows exactly where they’re going to come from, I mean he tells us when we get there. Look, they’re going to come through this lane and we’re going to come over that tree, they’re going to break right here and this is where you’re going to shoot them and that’s exactly what they do. Like he spends enough time with his birds, he knows what’s happening. And he’s also while the limits here are very liberal and he still knows when to stop. And he knows especially the upland birds, there were certain birds were before we walked out into the field into the cover, he said, if we get into this species, I’m thinking it was the Franklin. You can only kill one – we can only kill one per covey of these birds because we want to conserve. He has conservation tactics that he uses on his birds around there because he knows that it’s a valuable resource to him. So you got to respect and appreciate how he handles his game here too.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. Those Gray wing Franklin, he told us, the Gray Wing Franklin are big covey birds and he said, but I’ll ask, you all want shoot more than one apiece on the covey rise. And then we’re not going to walk up singles, we’ll go find another covey go find some more game bird because he wants them to be able to reproduce. That’s pretty cool.

Rocky Leflore: Jake, I know you’re still in the early stages with this as you shoot all of this footage. But I know you’ve got a story in your mind, what’s going to happen with this South African footage from where you stand today with what you filmed? Kind of the storyline.

“First of all species, these are unfamiliar species to probably most people in the world. One of the stories – it’ll be like we talked about before, they’ll be some of the old school tactics and made perhaps and the British influence here. But one of the things that just really stands out to me, I think Ryan and Ramsey would agree is this yellow billed duck and it’s a mallard, its South Africa’s mallard.”

Jake Latendresse: First of all species, these are unfamiliar species to probably most people in the world. One of the stories – it’ll be like we talked about before, they’ll be some of the old school tactics and made perhaps and the British influence here. But one of the things that just really stands out to me, I think Ryan and Ramsey would agree is this yellow billed duck and it’s a mallard, its South Africa’s mallard. It sounds like a mallard, it acts like a mallard. And when you look at it, it’s anatomy and it’s color schemes, it’s color patterns. Like this duck has to have mallard DNA in it. And I just find it to be fascinating everywhere we go whether it’s Australia and the pacific black duck wherever – it doesn’t matter where we go, there’s some duck that looks and acts like a mallard and I think that’s a story in itself that needs to be told because it’s familiarity with your average waterfowl, particularly from America. So, those are the things that are sticking out in my mind right now.

Ramsey Russell: Every duck hunter in America could relate to the African yellow billed duck. They brown looking kind of like a mottle duck, they got double white wing bars and they work and they quack and the decoy and it’s hard not to get addicted to them. Hey speaking of species over here, Ryan and I passed a pretty big milestone today. One of my biggest primary goal coming over here was to get Cape shovelers and we scored them today. There’s 4 shovelers in the world, the Northern shoveler, everybody knows from back home, the red shoveler of Argentina, Australasian shoveler down in New Zealand and now the Cape shoveler, which is really the travesty of them all I believe, but we both shot our shovelers today and now have the official world shoveler slam. And I should be proud of, my finest.

Jake Latendresse: I think I might very well be the only camera guy in the world that has filmed the shoveler slam.

Ramsey Russell: That’s awesome.

Ryan Bassham: We’re making it a thing.

Rocky Leflore: Jake, did they hug when they did it?

Jake Latendresse: I told them to kiss, I did. Because Ryan – Let’s get this out in the open, Ryan shot a hen and Ramsay shot a drake and Ryan wanted a picture with the drake and Ramsey was like no, that’s my drake. He said, well then get over here and get in the picture. I said, you all need to hug and kiss so I can take this photo.

Ryan Bassham: So what I ended up doing for me, I can’t remember exactly what Ramsey posted. I posted a photo of me with the hen and Ramsey with the drake but you can see the difference and like Ramsey said it, it’s a much more drab, even the drake and just there’s not a whole lot of color to them but they still have that special spoony beauty to them in my opinion, I think there’s still really cool birds.

Jake Latendresse: I mean, how cool is that, man?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it’s crazy to me that they’ve all got those spatulate bills but their wings are all the same. I mean that’s the

craziest thing that their wings are all the same, that’s clearly – And this bird, that drake I held today, I just felt like it weighed 20-30% more than any Northern shoveler that I’ve ever picked up. It was a very fat, dense bird compared to the Northern shoveler it’s got to be bigger.

Ryan Bassham: Definitely is a bigger bird without question in my opinion just is.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Jake Latendresse: It’s exciting for me as a spectator. I mean, I was photographing the shovelers today and it was exciting for me when Ramsey killed his, when the flock – when it flopped over and turned over on its back on the water, you could just tell from the wing colors that it was a drake and I was excited like man, I can’t wait to see this bird just because it’s a close up and the first time I have ever seen a shoveler from down here, that subspecies and I mean I was excited, I was excited for Ryan too. And we were watching from a distance when he shot his and man, there was anticipation there like wow, let’s see this thing. You know what I mean?

Ramsey Russell: Definitely.

Rocky Leflore: I got to ask you this one. I may catch heck about this one. This photo of you and Ryan who owns the rights to that on the get ducks.

Jake Latendresse: The camera guy.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, the camera guy but which photo are you talking about? There’s on my Instagram.

Rocky Leflore: Here’s the reason why – it was on Instagram.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah.

Rocky Leflore: Definitely, I am thinking about putting out a duck south calendar this year and I want that for the cover.

Jake Latendresse: Wait, are you talking about the one with the yellow bills? Where they’re standing beside each?

Rocky Leflore: Yeah.

Ryan Bassham: That’s the one.

Rocky Leflore: The barrels pointed down. I mean Ryan’s got his shirt rolled up to his bicep. It looks like he’s about to pop open, barrels pointed down with strap full of ducks that is calendar cover worthy right there.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah. With all the yellow bills, yeah, that’s a cool photo. Jake try to get some sort of cut, count me in buddy.

Rocky Leflore: Hey, I hate to say this, but you all really look like you all ready to kick some ass in that photo.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, we were done kicking.

Jake Latendresse: We are kind of working on that.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, we work as an international photo.

Rocky Leflore: Awesome photo. I mean really cool, you all need to frame that.

Jake Latendresse: That was a really fun hunt.

Ryan Bassham: Fun hunt and I mean that photo is fantastic. It’s probably one of my most favorite photos honestly and for a lot of reasons, but some of the stuff Jake’s getting that no one’s even seen yet is absolutely incredible. I think everyone’s going to be blown away, I’m super excited for the content that he’s been able to capture so far. It’s what we expect out of him given his talent. But man, it’s good stuff.

Rocky Leflore: So this redheaded – All right, I’m going to go through just asking some questions just from the photos that I’ve seen that like this – the duck that looks like a hooded merganser with the red bill and got the hood, it’s got a rusty colored head to it.

Ryan Bassham: Oh, are you looking on –

Rocky Leflore: I’m looking on Instagram.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, that’s from Azerbaijan. That Red Crested Poachard –

Ramsey Russell: That’s from Azerbaijan.

Rocky Leflore: Okay.

Ramsey Russell: That Red Crested Poachard is from Azerbaijan.

Ryan Bassham: That was the photo I posted a random before we left.

Rocky Leflore: Okay. So the spur – all right, so what is the spur goose? Now, that’s one that I heard you talk about before you left Ramsey. The spur wing –

Ramsey Russell: The Spur winged geese. And it’s the world’s largest goose on average. I mean, only the cape barren goose down in part of Australia is as big and it’s a big ugly goose. It’s like the ugliest goose you’ve ever seen. Black and white, just kind of butter looking face but it’s got big spurs on his wings. I mean, shoot

I’ve seen him as large as 3 quarter of an inch, an inch big nasty

spurs for territorial fighting and stuff. And it’s interesting that all those threads on it on duck south about the winter and everything else, I mean, it’s warm, it was frost the first morning we hunted here, but it’s been warm, unseasonably warm and those birds aren’t quite down. So, we tried to orchestrate a plans after and pass shoot a few and Randy one of guys that’s over here hunt with us has got one a juvenile, but that was it, it just didn’t work out. We’ve got one more stop in a few days we think we’ll get to close the deal on some – I’ve shot them in 2012 and we hunt them just like we did the Egyptians. We pass shoot them coming from roost to feeding areas but these things are built like Sherman tanks. You don’t even look at their body, you look at their head, these things are big Rocky, they’re the world’s largest waterfowl species. And they’re tanks and they can weigh 20-23lbs.

Jake Latendresse: It looked like they jumped out of a Mad Max movie set.

Ramsey Russell: Exactly. That’s a good script.

Rocky Leflore: But that spur that kicks off their wings, it’s really sharp, isn’t it?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it’s really sharp, hooked and sharp. It’s nasty.

Jake Latendresse: It’s like a bear claw, cat claw or something.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it’s a heck of a bird. And that’s still on the hit list yet for this week. And on the flip side, another bird it’s on the hit list is called a pygmy goose and it weighs about

3 quarter of a pound. It’s a tiny smaller than a green wing teal but it’s a goose that’s high on the list. Yeah. Now, there’s about 13 species of waterfowl over here and we’re about halfway through the list right now. Mostly red billed teal and yellow bills, some white faced whistling ducks. We did shoot some comb duck or knob billed ducks they call them, Egyptian geese and spur wing. So I’m maybe forgetting one. And those red billed teal are pretty cool. That was a new bird for me, I had not shot them before but we got tired of shooting a couple of times. I wouldn’t say tired of shooting them but we shot plenty, we got that. And the yellow billed duck and the red billed duck those are pretty common species that part of Africa we’re hunting. They’re very common.

Rocky Leflore: You said most of the area that you’re hunting are agricultural regions, are there? – And inside those regions are there break swampy areas that you’re hunting or is it?

Ramsey Russell: No, it’s all lakes. What they call pans? Which is that natural lakes or dams which are dammed up. You’ve got to remember too now, the average precipitation in this part of Southern Africa is 15 inches a year, I probably got that last weekend in Mississippi. It’s a dry country and we drove by a lot of lakes that normally hold ducks that they sometimes dry up. And we drove by one the other day there was a herd of springbuck laid out just a little dried up lake bed. He said that was a good lake usually for holdings for spur wings when they were down, it’s just how it is.

Jake Latendresse: Man, when the duck flock starts, you go out there in the afternoon and you shoot, you’re getting some shooting and you’re thinking this is a pretty good hunt and then when the ducks decided they’re going to come back to that lake or pond or pan that you’re hunting, it’s like someone turned on a light switch and it is freaking absolutely insane.

Ryan Bassham: You can’t load your gun fast enough.

Ramsey Russell: No.

Rocky Leflore: Hey, let me ask you this. This is an off the wall question. We’ve all been on the podcast a lot together, Jake and I hosted a podcasts, Ryan doing your story and Ramsey every week but things are different when you’re in the blind. What’s it like in the blind with you 3 guys?

Jake Latendresse: We’re usually outside the blind.

Ryan Bassham: I tried to say Jake would disagree it but go on.

Jake Latendresse: I’m a social outcast.

Ramsey Russell: Ryan and I are usually talking about Jake in the blind.

Jake Latendresse: And I can always hear it because Ramsay is always wired up with audio. They just pass gas and brag about themselves.

Ryan Bassham: It’s a good time to say the least. We have a lot of fun ribbing each other and trying to shoot birds from underneath each other and all that good stuff, it’s fun is what it is and that’s what it’s supposed to be.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve all hunted in 4 continents together now, Rocky and that makes a difference. And really I’m struggling to think if we’ve ever been on just any real normal hunts. Like

a lot of hunts, we all hunt together because it’s international, it’s just different. And we’ve done a lot of exploratory type hunts together where we show up knowing we’ve got to roll with the punches and make something happen and when in on, kind of go with it and that’s different in and of itself.

Rocky Leflore: For sure.

Jake Latendresse: I think we’re always talking about, how to improve ourselves too. Obviously we’re all in a different form of business within the hunting industry, but we’re constantly trying to figure out how to better ourselves and we’re bouncing ideas off of each other during the downtime and I think that’s a really valuable thing because we all have a different perspective, that’s what we do, but it’s kind of all funnels into the same channel and that’s one of the things that I really enjoyed about being around both of these guys because they both know what they’re doing, they’re very experienced and they have a different point of view and it makes you think about what you’re doing and just makes you better at the end of the day.

Rocky Leflore: I thought about you all last night, I went to a nice retirement dinner for a high up official at Mississippi State last night and one of the things that he said in his retirement speech was – he’s a part of the extension here in Mississippi. One of the things he was talking about was, winners in life, hang out with other winners and they make each other better. When he said that I was thinking about you all, sitting in the blind and it’s kind of reason that I brought this up. Yeah, I’m sure you all joke and you have fun laughing and joking and cutting up. But I bet there’s a lot of conversation about the industry, hey, how can we work together to make this better? How can we team up to do this? And that’s kind of what I’m getting at. Winners make each other better and losers sit in the corner and bitch about the winners, that’s kind of what he said in his speech.

Ramsey Russell: There’s a lot of truth in that. I look at it like, Jake is a photographer, he sees things through a lens with a different perspective than we have. And Ryan is all up in that industry and stuff in the merchandise and it to me it’s always educational. I always leave these hunts, I feel like I’m a better person or that I know more than I did coming into it. I’ve heard Jake say before, everybody’s got a story, you can learn something from everybody if you just listen. I do a lot of listening when we’re riding the car. These two guys know a lot.

Jake Latendresse: And likewise looking at them from my perspective too the same exact thing.

Rocky Leflore: But you see it so much these days, people want to sit back and complain about the people that – sounding like Trump saying this win all the time or win in life, whatever it may be. They wanted a large percentage that want to just sit around and complain about it instead of going trying to be friends with that person and trying to make themselves better by listening to that person. Hear what they have to say. I guarantee you they – after you break through that magical curtain that’s there, they’ll delve into a lot of secrets with you. If you show that you really care about them and what they have to say.

Ramsey Russell: We had a talk – No, go ahead Ryan.

Ryan Bassham: Go ahead Ramsey. I was going to say –

Ramsey Russell: We have hadn’t talk – Yeah, I bet I am. But we were – maybe not. We all ate at a Kentucky Fried Chicken –

Rocky Leflore: Here we go with the Kentucky Fried Chicken again.

Ramsey Russell: Check that off your life list I ate a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Africa go figure. But we were just rolling down then we stopped and we were talking about something that had been going on and how many people maybe in life or certainly in the overall industry of hunting, they guide themselves by their own personal vanity. And that’s one thing I’ll just go on record to say and I enjoyed hunting with these two guys especially because nothing is vanity motivated. And if you can just remove that from the equation it just makes for a whole lot better experience in anything you do in life. It’s not all about vanity man, it’s just about enjoying and doing and giving and seeing and you know what is vanity? I mean, it’s so many aspects of that and that’s one thing I think we 3 have in common, in some respects we’ve succeeded and setting out to do some things that we started out to do. But what I see with the 3 of us is we’re always wanting – we’ve still got a lot of mountain to climb and that’s what we’re always trying to help each other figure out is how to keep climbing the mountain and get the next level up.

Jake Latendresse: There’s trust. There’s a lot of trust here too man, because we talk about things that we wouldn’t talk about with just anyone in any duck blind and when you share that sense of trust with two guys like that, I mean you just start building the relationship grows and the team concept grows and when you do that or we accomplish our goals a whole lot more. You accomplish your goals and you move on to the next one and some might be small and some might be bigger than others, but there’s an overall picture that we’re all trying to accomplish and we’ve all got different platforms. Ramsey selling duck hunts, Ryan’s in the merchandise business, I’m in the camera and creative content business and we all have a different perspective on it. But man, when you come together and you share that space and you try to help each other accomplish each other’s goals, the big picture works itself out and it’s a great thing. I mean, I truly love, as we’re talking about all this and getting all mushy, I truly love spending time with these guys because A they have experience on the international level, which isn’t easy to find. Not everybody travels like the 3 of us do and I’m not putting us on a pedestal, but I’m just trying to explain why and how we all get along and why we’re able to accomplish what we do because we help each other out just like they were talking about.

Ryan Bassham: Definitely. I think with all that said, I think one of the common themes and some of the discussions we’ve had previously today or around that very question Rocky, common theme was the further on you go down these paths that each of us are on or other individuals are on, the more you realize how much you don’t know and that humbles you a great deal and it allows you to really kind of take a step back and say, man, I don’t know at all, I still have a lot to learn and just simply be grateful for the opportunities that that you get, whether it’s hunting there in your backyard back home or getting to do something like this that you never dreamed of being able to do at the end of the day, you still sit back and go, man, I still don’t know it all and I’m fortunate to have learned as much as I have and I think keeping that mindset being around people that share that mindset is pretty critical to continue and find success in whatever it is that you’re doing. So, I think that all sums it up pretty damn well.

Rocky Leflore: I agree with you.

Jake Latendresse: Ryan did a question and answer, he did a Q and A on his Instagram stories today and it was really interesting how it all sort of unfolded because people were asking questions and one of the things that occurred in the vehicle while we were driving answering questions, we all agree immediately agreed on the same answers. You know the answer to some of these questions whether it was regardless of what it was about. And to me that sort of told a little story within itself to me that we all see the same – at the end of the day, the big pictures the same and one of the most provocative questions asked was what – and it’s a common question and typically when I get this question in a DM or a private message, you answer it the same way. But when you hear all 3 people say the same thing, particularly when a guy was probably asking for a very specific answer to this vague and general question which was if somebody wants to break into the industry, what’s the most important thing to keep in mind or what do you have to do to break into the industry? And all 3 of us had nothing to do with hunting, had everything to do with – we all said

work hard and sustain your integrity and I found that to be really refreshing and interesting as we talked about that in the truck that, it’s not about hunting or how many ducks you kill or how many deer you kill or how many bands you have on your lanyard, it’s about honesty and trust in the relationships that you build and that’s what we’re doing here.

Ramsey Russell: That’s exactly right, Jake.

Rocky Leflore: Let me ask you this, do you think that some people start out with the belief that, look if I can make people better, t hat will return 10 fold to me later. That’s something that I believed in that I try to live by. 2 things always listen, always trying to make people better around you. And anyway, that was another point that came up in that speech last night. Well, I’m sorry, this is not – this has turned into more of a self-help, make you better at business podcast. But when you have 3 of the most successful people in the hunting industry, you’re going to talk about this. But I know that all 3 of you all, we’ve talked about this off the air a bunch of times, if we could figure out as an industry is how to bring all of us up and help each other out, make each other better, you know what, it will make the industry as a whole better.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Ryan Bassham: Definitely. I mean, even outside the industry, I mean –

Jake Latendresse: The mind state man.

Ryan Bassham: Strong personal view on – especially with just man, I’m not trying to get on a soapbox here. But I mean, social media is a good example but even outside of social media, I try to remind myself this and I don’t do great at it, but I asked myself, is what I’m about to do, is what am I about to say, whatever I’m about to post, is that somehow helping somebody in some way or leaving a positive effect on somebody out there and help them lift them up and that can be personal, that can be work related, it doesn’t matter. And I’m not perfect keeping that mindset all the time, but reeling it back into what you’re talking about Rocky, absolutely. I think if everybody associated in this industry and anybody listening to this podcast, you’re associated to the “hunting industry” because you’re an active participant, you’re part of this brotherhood and having that positive mindset is not – don’t make it about you, it’s not about you, man, it’s about us maintaining that brotherhood and being able to do that will hopefully help this hunting community of ours have a lot much longer life because right now it’s in a weird spot and it’s kind of scary for me.

Jake Latendresse: I agree.

Ramsey Russell: Very true.

Rocky Leflore: I mean, I agree because I have to deal with it every day as a moderator of Duck South and just trying to weed eat through the comedians and the smart Alex and the I can’t wait to tear somebody down because they shoot a Benelli or they shoot a Beretta or a Remington who gives a crap, they wear Sitka or drake or whatever, what good is it doing as a whole? That’s the part of it, I don’t get. I mean, you get 3 seconds of fame and at the end of the day you’re thought of as a nut head?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Jake Latendresse: I mean, the irony is, is that what people do to try to get into whatever that is. Let me step back, the irony is that the most common things that people are doing that are – I’ll just say it immature trying to break into the industry ironically enough is actually counterproductive and opposite of what you should be doing. Those are the things that the people in the industry that are trying to recruit the best people that they can to associate with their brands, what a lot of people are doing is exactly opposite of what they should be doing and it’s counterproductive and they don’t realize everybody’s watching. And when you’re doing these silly little things, it’s like, okay, well scratch him off the list or scratch her off the list because why would you want to associate with someone like that?

Rocky Leflore: I agree with you.

Ryan Bassham: I think to help. In this day and age man, there’s people don’t understand when I say it, there’s not much I don’t hear about unfortunately and there’s a lot of stuff I don’t want to hear about it, it’s a very small community. Man, put your best foot forward to see a good person at the end of the day because people are going to find out and hear about anything you even say, but it comes out of your mouth man, like it can put you in a bad spot and it’s just not worth it.

Rocky Leflore: Well, hey like I said, I wasn’t going to have 3 of the industry leaders on here without talking general business so I appreciate that a few minutes. But hey, what’s the plan for the next couple of days because I know a couple of – Ryan, you’re heading back out in a couple of days and Jake you’re staying for a few days longer, correct?

Jake Latendresse: I’ll be here till the 13^th I believe. And we’ve got another week.

Ryan Bassham: Yeah, we’re going to be here hunting together.

Ramsey Russell: We got another week of having fun together, yeah.

Ryan Bassham: And then once –

Ramsey Russell: Our upcoming plans tomorrow, Rocky are to go shoot guinea fowl. Now, you folks lived out in the country and then by somebody’s house and you see those –

Rocky Leflore: Kiwi’s that’s what I was going to ask.

Ramsey Russell: Those guinea weren’t running around. I’ll tell you what, I have said this and it is the truth. I have been looking forward to the upcoming couple of days shooting guineas more than any other aspect of this trip just because I did it back in 2012 and I have said, I would come back to Africa just to shoot driven guinea fowl. If you had told me that that goofy chicken looking bird run around a farmer’s yard could fly 45 or 50 mph, he was shot from a cannon, I’d have called you a lie. But it’s going to be fun, we’ll form a shooting line and the staff will kill them up. Some of these flocks are huge. I’ve seen flocks of 150 birds and they’re out feeding in the cornfield and these guys are just form a person and start pushing towards the guns and a human person just start drawing it up beneath these birds start flying across the line pretty dead gum sporty. These will be helmeted guinea fowl we’re shooting and it’s a ride, it is just sheer deep fun and they eat good too. And then after a couple of days of that, we’re going to another province. We started off in Malaga or boy don’t get me to speak the word langa and now we’re in Free State. And then in a few days we’re moving down to Zulu land and it’s awful down the southern tip just to go and cherry pick some of the species we may not have gotten – try to get the other half of that list we’re working on.

Rocky Leflore: The Guineas, Ramsey a lot of times you see Guineas in somebody’s yard country middle of nowhere, you know what they’re good for?

Ramsey Russell: Like a watchdog.

Rocky Leflore: And they will eat every tick you’ve got around your house. They will clean your yard up of insects.

Ramsey Russell: That’s good. That’s what on our plans. And we’re having a good time and we’re not going to be getting up at the crack of dawn. Like, I said, getting up at 03:30 or something but Now we’ve got breakfast at 07:00 AM and probably leave here about 8 and give the bird time to get off roosts and get off in the corn field to start feeding and organize a couple of shoots. And I think our afternoons for the next couple of days will be scouting different pans and dams and looking for ducks and geese and organizing plans to jump shooting or pass shooting.

Rocky Leflore: Well man, you all be careful. We’re about out of time. I’ve really enjoyed having you all here. I hope you’ll finish out the species list and I wish I was in the – I don’t wish I was always there in South Africa with you, but I wish I was sharing the blind listening to what was going on inside that blind, that would be fun to me.

Jake Latendresse: Thank you for having us.

Rocky Leflore: Heck yeah man, I know you all are ready to go to bed. Ryan, Jake, Ramsey, thank you again for being here. We want to take all of you that listened to this edition of The End Of The Line podcast powered by ducksouth.com.

 

[End of Audio]

LetsTranscript Transcription Services

www.letstranscript.com