Transcript

Travis Bader: [00:00:00] I’m Travis Bader and this is The Silvercore Podcast. Join me as I discuss matters related to hunting, fishing, and outdoor pursuits with the people and businesses that comprise of the community. If you’re new to Silvercore, be sure to check out our website, www.Silvercore.ca where you can learn more about courses, services and products that we offer as well as how you can join The Silvercore Club, which includes 10 million in North America wide liability insurance to ensure you are properly covered during your outdoor adventures.

[00:00:43] Time is running out. BradleySmoker.com is giving one lucky Silvercore member a brand new Pro P10 Smoker and the winner will be announced on an upcoming podcast. Already a member, and want 20% off everything Bradley has other website for the month of July? Check our member area on the Silvercore website for your coupon code as well as discounts on tons of other products.

[00:01:08] So I’m sitting down with Matt Stewart, Roy Kanda, and Greg Miller. And it couldn’t be more timely. So today we sent out an email a couple of hours ago, we’ve had about, I’m looking 105, we had 105 responses so far and essentially it was an email that went out, asking people, what do they want to see from Silvercore?

[00:01:31] And a number of people are talking about hunting and one guy came up, he said, I’m preparing to go hunting for the first time this fall, a podcast discussing strategies for first time, hunters would be appreciated, thank you. So this couldn’t be better because we have some new-ish hunters here. So Matt, Roy, you guys got into hunting what? But a year ago, two years ago?

Roy Kanda: [00:01:57] Two years ago.

Matt Stewart: [00:01:58] I think we’re a lil bit more than two years ago yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:02:00] Yeah we took a hunting course together. I wanted to get my firearms license, for actually a handgun to start. I did not think about hunting until they asked us why we wanted a firearm. And Matt had said for hunting, then I just copied his answer.

Matt Stewart: [00:02:17] Well, I don’t count the first year as hunting. That was like, I don’t know. Lots of crazy, well, not lots of crazy stuff happened, but we didn’t know what we were doing. So I don’t, you don’t count the first. I don’t know, two months.

Roy Kanda: [00:02:31] No, there’s no way. We had no idea what we were doing. We watched a lot of videos, but still we’re very unsure of how to approach it and what to do and where to go.

Travis Bader: [00:02:40] And you guys, aren’t your stereotypical hunters, like when you think about Elmer Fudd out there, traipse around with his shotgun and coveralls. Why don’t you give a little bit, just a short bio background about yourselves and we can kind of get rolling.

Matt Stewart: [00:02:56] Sure. Nobody in my family is into hunting. Like had a cousin in Alberta who is into it. My dad, he was a fisherman, but he wasn’t into hunting at all. I went out once with a neighbour, I thought it was kind of cool, but I never thought about it as a kid, even as a really adult, I dunno, I just, didn’t come to mind. So, you know, I’m more of a business person, so, nobody at work does it like, it’s just not at all.

Travis Bader: [00:03:26] You have no family background.

Matt Stewart: [00:03:27] No, no family back.

Travis Bader: [00:03:28] No mentor. Really?

Matt Stewart: [00:03:30] No, no mentor. None at all. So yeah, it’s totally out of the norm. Like yeah. Not even my wife, nobody in her family. Nobody

Travis Bader: [00:03:39] And Roy, how bout you?

Roy Kanda: [00:03:41] Coming from an Indo-Canadian background, my dad, uncles, no one hunted. They all had firearms, they had pistols. They’d go shooting on the weekends and whatnot and we’d see them. Weren’t allowed to touch them, weren’t allowed to see, like handle them, but we just saw them.

[00:03:54] So there’s always a fascination with firearms, but no one in our family hunting, fishing, tenting for us was staying at the motel 8. Like there was, there was nothing to do with the outdoors whatsoever. So zero hunting background, never went out, nothing, all brand new for us.

Travis Bader: [00:04:11] And Greg, now you’re getting into hunting and so much as you’re, you’re learning from, from Matt and from Roy here.

Greg Miller: [00:04:19] Yeah. It was just one of those things, I think I went with these two guys when they first bought their, their first rifles and, they went through the process at the time. I wasn’t, didn’t have the time to take the course and commit to it. And then they started going out and I mean, we golfed together, we fished together.

[00:04:35] We do a lot of activities, outdoor activities, and it was, they said, Hey, why don’t you come in and just see what it’s like. I love the water, I love being on boats, I’ve been around boats my whole life. And so I figured, Hey, if I can go out and help to start off with and just see what it’s like, and you know, if I can help with the set up or get them out there and, you know, go do recoveries or so be it.

[00:04:54] And I would, I would help out where I can. So for sure it’s something I, I’ll finally get my license eventually. It’s just a matter of trying to find the time more than more than anything.

Travis Bader: [00:05:03] Yeah. And for the listeners out here, we’re primarily talking about waterfowl hunting and being out in the water now had Matt, Roy, have you guys had much experience on the water or is that a leaning on Greg a lot here? No Matt you got the fishing background.

Matt Stewart:[00:05:18] I fish. So I, you know, I have a boat, so I’m used to that, so that part was fine. Not really in the marsh, more down the river then, you know, out in the Gulf or whatever. But and then a bit with my dad being a fisherman too, but you know, it didn’t really interest me back in the day, so it’s still fairly new to me, but, you know, this is where Greg comes in and he’s kind of our, make sure we.

Greg Miller: [00:05:43] It’s okay, you can say it.

Matt Stewart: [00:05:44] Yeah. He’s our safety guy so.

Roy Kanda: [00:05:46] Or Papa bear.

Matt Stewart: [00:05:47] Yeah well he kind of makes sure we do it right. So lights on the boat going down the river when it’s dark and stuff like that. Roy and I are more like hop in and go so.

Roy Kanda: [00:05:56] No, it’s a big deal that we’ve got Greg on the team there because we, when we started out and I have zero water experience. Like I go with some experienced fishermen and before we even get to the dock, they put a life jacket on me.

[00:06:09] They want to make sure that we got Kanda, he’s the only guy that can’t swim. So for me, it’s a big deal having guys that are into safety. When Matt and I started out, we’d go out in the fog and we’d do our best, sometimes we didn’t have the lights and when Greg found out we didn’t have lights, he kind of looked at us like, what are you guys doing?

Travis Bader: [00:06:25] Right.

Matt Stewart: [00:06:26] He bought them for us.

Roy Kanda: [00:06:26] He bought them for us. And you know what, thank goodness he did because in times out there where we were like, Whoa, we need those lights, it’s very important. So it’s, for me, it’s a big education thing, being with someone who knows about the water cause I don’t know anything about the water.

Travis Bader: [00:06:40] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:06:41] I’m not sure which way to go. A couple of times they’ve been trying to teach me how to drive the boat as well in case of emergency, which is great, cause I’ve never driven a boat before. So here, these guys are trying to coach me and teach me if I didn’t have them, I’d be stuck.

Travis Bader: [00:06:53] So your first time of going out, hunting, no mentors. Going in blind, what’d you, do you just, you go on forums?

Roy Kanda: [00:07:01] Oh, hang tight here. So this, this is the best story. This is our first time hunting. We bought our, our shotguns and we’d bought the blank rounds and fired them around the house and it was great. And then we started looking to gear, Matt and I are both gear guys. So we got gear, we got all kinds of gear. We looked pretty, really pretty. And then we picked up the rounds of ammo and then we decided we need to, this is before we had a boat.

Matt Stewart: [00:07:26] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:07:26] And we’re like, we need to go, we need to get some, some ducks here. Let’s go harvest some ducks. So we did some research and Matt did some research and we, we compared notes and Matt said, okay, we’re going out this day. Make sure you bring your ammo, you got your gun, we’re good to go. And we started out and we drove down the road done and.

Travis Bader: [00:07:46] You drove down some road.

Roy Kanda: [00:07:47] We drove down some road, we jumped out out of the truck and we’re walking down the sidewalk. And I remember some folks driving by looking at us and they were very scared cause two guys walking down the street with firearms and about to jump into the marsh. So we jump into the marsh, Matt carry on from there.

Matt Stewart: [00:08:06] Well, like highest tide of the year. So like, they’re like, okay, we’ll do just go off into the road, we’ll go down it to here. We’ll go our, whatever, 150 meters off the road, make sure we’re cool. But we couldn’t see where we’re stepping. The water’s like up almost to our chest. We have our gun over our shoulder. I’m holding my box of shells. Like I didn’t even have it in a bag, like, or even in a pocket. And I’m just like.

Roy Kanda: [00:08:37] He’s, he’s chest deep. He’s chest deep with a gun in one hand and a box of ammo in the other. Behind them is the guy that can’t swim, not wearing a life vest. Asking him, hey, Matt, check, check how deep it is. Let me, let me know if we’re going to drop. I think we’re okay.

Matt Stewart: [00:08:55] I had to go first and then stepping into a hole and then I went down and I get all wet.

Roy Kanda: [00:09:01] And then his glove, his glove got wet, which is the glove I bought from about two sets because they’re on sale. And little did we know that they weren’t waterproof? So now we both have cold hands. He’s got a cold left hand and I’ve got a cold right hand. Cause I dipped in the, in the hole too. So then we decided that, that wasn’t a very good idea.

Matt Stewart: [00:09:19] Yeah. Yeah. Then we decided we wouldn’t, we couldn’t get out far enough to be away from the road. So we’re like, okay, this is just not gonna work and this is just a dumb idea. Like even if it was the lower tide, I don’t know. I still think we wouldn’t have got out there anyways. So we went back up, got in the truck and then, you know, I’m like, okay, I think there is another area we can get, you know, off the dike somewhere.

[00:09:43] So went up driving, you know, I don’t know, 15 minutes found a spot, parked. Walking down the dike, and then it was just weird because we’re there these people are walking their dogs, there’s people like taking pictures of birds and there was other hunters out there, but. And it was like, by this time it was like sunny, you know, I don’t think there’s any ducks around.

[00:10:08] There’s a lot of people and I’m just like, we went out there anyways. It was a little bit weird, but and then we just kinda stood and went down and stood in the marsh and then we’re just like, there’s nothing coming in, there’s nothing around, there’s a bunch of hunters that are all coming back in and we’re like, okay, this didn’t happen today. But we learned a few things.

Roy Kanda: [00:10:26] So we were fully intimated. We’re not quite sure how far we’re supposed to be from other hunters. We had just come like the day before from the gun range for the first time when we tried to shoot trap and I yelled pull and I went to shoot the clay and my, my lock was on.

Travis Bader: [00:10:44] Your trigger lock or your safety?

Matt Stewart: [00:10:45] Your safety was on.

Travis Bader: [00:10:46] Safety, okay.

Roy Kanda: [00:10:47] And yeah, that was a bit embarrassing. So fully green, fully intimidated. Haven’t really shot before and it’s like, we learned a couple of things. Like maybe we shouldn’t go into the marsh when it’s deep and we don’t know. And that’s probably like noon. I don’t know what time it was, it was like middle of the day.

Matt Stewart: [00:11:02] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:11:02] No decoys, nothing.

Matt Stewart: [00:11:03] Nothing. Not even a bag.

Roy Kanda: [00:11:05] No, just a box ammo and a hand.

Matt Stewart: [00:11:07] And a firearm.

Travis Bader: [00:11:09] Greg, you do some work with coast guard.

Greg Miller: [00:11:11] Uh, yep with the volunteers. Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue.

Travis Bader: [00:11:15] Do you ever come across hunters that are.

Greg Miller: [00:11:17] Yeah for sure.

Travis Bader: [00:11:18] Waiting out in the marsh?

Greg Miller: [00:11:19] Yeah. Just broken down boats in the river. Guys go out and aren’t able to get back cause their engines won’t start. Most of the time there’s other guys out there that can bring them back, but the odd, the odd time that you can find a call off Steveson there off Ladner.

Travis Bader: [00:11:33] Right.

Matt Stewart: [00:11:34] For sure.

Greg Miller: [00:11:34] And I think that’s kind of why you hear the stories of these guys going out first time and kind of, for me, it’s like, okay, if I can take that stress away because running the river is stressful. There’s logs, there’s debris running it at five o’clock in the morning when there’s no, you know, no navigation lights. And so if you can take that stress away to allow them just to kind of focus on the hunting side of it.

Travis Bader: [00:11:55] Right.

Greg Miller: [00:11:55] That’s that’s, that’s where I fit in. So it’s, it’s good.

Travis Bader: [00:11:59] For now.

Greg Miller: [00:12:00] For now.

Travis Bader: [00:12:00] For now.

Greg Miller: [00:12:00] For now, yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:12:01] So that was your first time out hunting and an unsuccessful hunt in so much as harvesting anything but successful in that you learned where not to go, how not to do it?

Roy Kanda: [00:12:13] Yup. Exactly.

Travis Bader: [00:12:15] Would you go back and you’d like read or research on the internet or talk to the gun store and try and get as many tips as possible? Like, what was your tactic?

Matt Stewart: [00:12:24] I didn’t really tell, talk to anybody at the gun store. Cause I, even there, I felt kind of intimidated and I’m like, are these, am I going to walk in here and this guy’s going to think I’m a total rookie? They’re not going to want to, they’ll be like, Oh, I don’t want to bother this guy.

[00:12:35] So I, I didn’t even try to be honest. A lot of it was just online and then a lot of it is you can’t find very much information really about sort of what’s going on here. You know, in the Lower Mainland, a lot of stuff is down in the States.

[00:12:52] So I’m like, is this even relevant to here? So like, I kind of figured the areas I could go, kind of knowing the river a bit, but I didn’t have a boat when we first started. So very quickly we realized that, you know what, we got to have a boat. So that was kind of one of the biggest, first sort of steps I think, into really progressing.

Roy Kanda: [00:13:18] I went to a couple of places and I asked a question or two, but that felt kind of dumb right away, cause these are all experts like. So the different stores and whatnot, and they’re not terribly mean whatsoever, but you just feel intimidated.

Travis Bader: [00:13:31] I get it.

Roy Kanda: [00:13:31] You feel like these guys know everything. And I’m here trying to get into this, this new activity and I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m going to look like an idiot.

Travis Bader: [00:13:40] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:13:40] So I did what Matt did and I, and I, I found out about a few, fowl hunters that were in the same profession. So I contacted them.

Travis Bader: [00:13:49] Okay.

Roy Kanda: [00:13:49] So I got some good tips. One of the gents told me make sure you get some really warm waders, especially for your feet cause you’re going to be cold. Go spend the extra money.

Travis Bader: [00:13:58] Okay.

Roy Kanda: [00:13:59] Then he said, well, if you need, you need to go out with someone who knows what they’re doing. So even before we got our boat, I think, well Matt’s boat there. We went out with a couple of gents, a couple of good guys who knew what they were doing that took us out.And that was the first time I had pulled the trigger at a duck. That’s right. I didn’t hit anything, but I gave it a go. When I got to, I think the biggest thing for me was knowing the etiquette.

Travis Bader: [00:14:25] That’s huge. Isn’t it?

Roy Kanda: [00:14:26] What are you supposed to do? How are you supposed to do it? That was huge. Is I just want to know the, the wrongs and the rights. Like, I didn’t want to mess up or offend anyone.

Travis Bader: [00:14:35] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:14:36] So having someone experienced to go out with, even for just the basic etiquette made a huge difference for us.

Travis Bader: [00:14:43] How about you, Matt?

Matt Stewart: [00:14:45] Yeah, same thing. I think that, you know, when we finally went out with somebody who knew what they were doing, you know, short period of time or one time it was, it just, I think we felt a lot more comfortable after that.

[00:14:56] So we’re like, okay, you know, we know what to do. I mean, one of the biggest things was like, when do I shoot that duck? Cause never doing it before you’re like, okay, how close do they have to be? And.

Travis Bader: [00:15:11] Right.

Matt Stewart: [00:15:11] Okay, it’s 25 yards, but this is the first time you’re doing it. This duck’s coming in, you’re getting all excited and you take a shot at it. And then you realize after like, well, that thing was like way too far away. Like, so you’re just wasting ammo.

Roy Kanda: [00:15:25] Matt’s still a sky blaster.

Matt Stewart: [00:15:27] Like that was a big thing. Like how close does it apt to come in? And then, you know, if you shoot it well, how are you going to retrieve it? Right. That’s another part, like, are you going to be able to get it or not? So, you know, those are some big things. So going out with somebody, just that one time was a big deal so.

Roy Kanda: [00:15:46] I think, I agree with you first time was a huge deal for us. It gave us a lot of confidence and just knowing just the basic stuff of what’s right and wrong. So then we were ready to go off on our own on the boat and learn some different things.

Matt Stewart: [00:16:03] Yeah. I think pretty soon after that is when we got a boat. So that kind of turned things around the start of it anyways.

Travis Bader: [00:16:10] Just went full into it. Got all the cool guy kit, then the boat.

Matt Stewart: [00:16:14] Yeah. I got a boat, cammoed it up. It was a bit too shiny aluminum for us. And then, it kind of started from there. And then I think we ended up having like waders, jacket, hat, gloves .I think we sort of figured that out. And then it was kind of figuring out where to go and then.

Roy Kanda: [00:16:32] And then getting beached a couple of times. Yeah. You don’t want to get beached. No, no. We sat out there at point we thought, Oh, we’re good, we’re good and I got a new shotgun and I was just trying to clear it out a bit and get it used to, in my hands and whatnot.

[00:16:47] And then we’re looking at the boat there and Matt’s like, Oh, we’re  good,we’re good. And then, we were beached.

Matt Stewart: [00:16:54] Yeah. The tide went out. We came in at a pretty high tide, hunting, sitting there, I’m like, ah, the boats in a bit of mud, we’ll be able to get it out. And then no.

Roy Kanda: [00:17:03] It’s like quicksand.

Travis Bader: [00:17:04] So what’d you do?

Matt Stewart: [00:17:07] Well, we dragged that. I think we dragged it probably a hundred yards across the mud. Probably took us an hour sinking in.

Roy Kanda: [00:17:15] It’s not mud, it’s quicksand.

Matt Stewart: [00:17:16] One foot at a time. We finally got it to some water and like a little slough, but it was like, I dunno, six inches deep. So then you’re walking down the slough out towards the river, gets a bit deeper, Roy can’t swim. So he’s like, ah, you know, he’s kind of freaking out, you know, I’m like get in the boat. I’m going to push you down.

Roy Kanda: [00:17:38] I got in the boat really quick. Really quick.

Matt Stewart: [00:17:40] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:17:41] I take it Greg wasn’t there to help with the tides?

Matt Stewart: [00:17:44] No, Greg, it was not there at the time. So he probably would have been watching a lot more careful than we were.

Roy Kanda: [00:17:48] Had Greg been there we would not have been on that adventure.

Matt Stewart: [00:17:52] No, we wouldn’t.

Roy Kanda: [00:17:53] No, he would have made sure that we were back in the boat.

Greg Miller: [00:17:55] You wouldn’t have had the stories though.

Roy Kanda: [00:17:58] True.

Travis Bader: [00:17:59] That’s a good point.

Roy Kanda: [00:18:00] Yes. We learned, so at that point we learned that, you know what? Don’t wait so long. Another time we were out there and our engine failed, we had just started, we were good. Now we had learned to go out at sunrise, right? Like we’re waiding, we’re a little bit smarter now. We’re going to go early. Now we’ve got a couple of decoys right.

[00:18:21] So now we progressed, we’ve got a few decoys now, so we’re going to go early. So we’re there, we’re ready, we’re on the boat and we’re going out and halfway there, the motor dies. It’s dead. We try, we try, Matt’s ticked off.

[00:18:35] So we, we kind of beached the boat to the side and try hunting from this area. No luck, gave it a go. Now I’m like, Matt we got to go bud, my wife’s waiting, we got to go to soccer practice or something like that. He’s like, okay, let’s go. So we’ve decided that we’re going to get back to shore, but we don’t have oars. What do we have Matt?

Matt Stewart: [00:18:54] Oh, it was a collapsible paddle.

Roy Kanda: [00:18:56] A collapsible paddle. It was, yes.

Greg Miller: [00:18:59] No lights, no oars.

Roy Kanda: [00:19:00] So no oars, no lights. We’ve got a collapsible  paddle, but you know, we’re giving it a go. We’re trying to get back, it’s not too far and it’s not working. So we decided to take a little of a shortcut. So we have this little canal we’re going to go through.

[00:19:14] And of course, Matt lets me sit in the boat like a king, cause I can’t swim and he is dragging the boat through the marsh there and the canal dries up. So now we’re not happy cause we have zero ducks. It’s not been a pleasant experience so far. Thank goodness it’s not raining, but he’s like Roy, here’s what we’re gonna do, buddy.

[00:19:34] We’re going to take the boat and we’re gonna carry it over 15, 20 feet across this, this piece of land here. And we’re back, we’re back in the.

Matt Stewart: [00:19:42] Middle of the river.

Roy Kanda: [00:19:43] We’re we’re good to go. I thought, okay, I can do that. So I’m at the front and he’s pushing the boat and I’m pulling the boat and we’re going over some land here and it’s like a push, pull and it’s that quicksand and a couple pulls in and I say, Matt, come up here and I could hear it in his voice Kanda, what’s the problem?

[00:20:05] I can hear him saying, listen, you weak Indo-Canadian guy who can’t swim. What is your problem? Why can’t you just pull the boat? Let’s go and I’ll come over buddy. So he comes up and he sees what I see and we discover a body.

[00:20:24] It is the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Here we are in the marsh, pulling a boat across the land and then boom, there’s a body. So he looks at me, he’s like, Oh, okay. You weren’t, you weren’t kidding around, this is serious. This is serious. So we both look at each other and it’s kind of like, you know, it’s like, Whoa, this is crazy, we better call someone here.

[00:20:48] So we made a couple of phone calls to our wives first, tell them that we might be a little bit late. And then, we made the call to the, or do you make the call to RCMP or did I? I think you did.

Matt Stewart: [00:20:59] You did, you made the first call and then you didn’t know where we were so.

Roy Kanda: [00:21:03] Then I passed  the phone to him.

Matt Stewart: [00:21:04] Passed the phone to me, and then you gotta describe where you are and then they’re like, well, there’s no land there. I’m like we’re standing on land, it’s the marsh. But yeah, that was, that was interesting.

Roy Kanda: [00:21:16] So then they, they came on down. But the best part is when the RCMP came on down, we could see land from where we were and the RCMP could see us, but they couldn’t get across to where we were.

[00:21:26] So Matt and I had to walk the boat too the RCMP, let them jump on the boat and then drag them back. There were three of them.

Matt Stewart: [00:21:38] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:21:38] Yeah. It was a pretty big deal for them.

Matt Stewart: [00:21:41] Yeah. And then the tide started to come in.

Roy Kanda: [00:21:43] The tide started coming and as the RCMP and the coast guard are going back and forth about the body.

Travis Bader: [00:21:49] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:21:50] Matt and I flagged down this, this young buck, must’ve been in his seventies.

Matt Stewart: [00:21:56] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:21:57] So we flag him down. He’s got his boat coming. He’s he’s a, he’s a hunter. And we, we yelled and we need to help, but we got the RCMP here. We got a body here, our boats dead, we gotta be towed back, so the best part is he’s trying to unload his firearm as his boat’s spinning. And he finally comes over and he jumps on land. He goes straight to the RCMP officer and asks what’s going on and he wants to go see the body.

[00:22:21] They’re like, fine, go see the body, don’t touch it. And we have this female RCMP officer that’s interviewing us and Matt and I are, are serious and whatnot. And grandpa  just, just, drops his waders. Drops his waders then he cause he needed to relieve himself. So the female.

Travis Bader: [00:22:41] All I’m saying. Number one or number two?

Roy Kanda: [00:22:44] Number one. And I’m thinking, I’m looking at Matt, I’m looking at the female RCMP officer and grandpa’s he has to relieve himself and he just turns around and we just kind of shrugged our shoulders.

[00:22:56] We got to watch the RCMP do a full search and see how they run, run protocol. And, and then the coolest thing was when that, the coast guard came in hey Matt?

Matt Stewart: [00:23:04] The hovercraft, yeah came in and had to take the body away. I mean, the tide was coming in. It was like, I dunno, it was like six inches deep there by the time. They didn’t realize I’m like, okay, I think we got about half an hour here and like the water’s going to be up. So like.

Travis Bader: [00:23:22] Right.

Matt Stewart: [00:23:22] We got to, you gotta figure out what you’re going to do here so. They kind of panicked and then they had to call the coast guard in. So that was quite the scene too so.

Travis Bader: [00:23:29] No kidding.

Roy Kanda: [00:23:30] Well, the best part is we call Greg and Greg’s like the one time I can’t come, the one time I can’t come you guys find the body, what is going on here? Cause he was all over it. I’m sure you are watching your video weren’t you checking out everything.

Greg Miller: [00:23:43] It was my wife’s birthday that day. So I don’t think it was a wise move to go and got the, got the text message really it’s a serious, and then watch the hovercraft get tasked and.

Travis Bader: [00:23:53] That’s a hell of a new hunting adventure. I don’t think too many people, new hunters go out there and happened to find bodies,  just floating, not for a while. It must’ve been there for awhile.

Roy Kanda: [00:24:04] It was there for a while. And RCMP said that it’s most likely they wouldn’t have found it.

Travis Bader: [00:24:08] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:24:09] Right. Unless someone had got stuck there. Cause no one would ever go over that little piece of land.

Matt Stewart: [00:24:14] Well, we shouldn’t have been there. I mean, the motor broke down. We’re pulling the boat, you know? Down the river, essentially. You’re, you were walking like on the shore, I was kind of pushing it on the side and we ju, we shouldn’t have been there, like nobody would stop there. So it’s just crazy. So.

Greg Miller: [00:24:30] Heck of a story though.

Travis Bader: [00:24:31] Yeah. That’s one of those things they’ll stick with you for awhile.

Matt Stewart: [00:24:33] Yeah, for sure. People like don’t believe me when I tell them. Like they’re just like, what, like really that happened? I’m like, yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:24:40] Well the best part was that the RCMP and the hovercraft left us there as they, as they went on their way. And a grandpa was that towing us back to shore. I don’t know if he’s doing donuts or whatnot, but he left us about a hundred yards from shore. He just dropped the rope.

Matt Stewart: [00:24:54] Yeah, he just dropped the rope and we’re like ugh. And so we just paddle our way back in. He was a seasoned veteran that gentlemen, at least he pulled us most of the way so.

Roy Kanda: [00:25:02] I think the best part was when we were stranded on the island there he’s like hey, Roy, can you call my wife for me? Cause she’s expecting me like, you know right now and if I don’t come home, I think she thinks I’m dead. I’m like Oh, sure, sure, you dial the phone, I can’t dial it. I can’t dial it, you dial it and then I’ll talk to her.

Travis Bader: [00:25:18] Oh man.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:18] Yeah it was interesting.

Roy Kanda: [00:25:19] Oh he was a beaut.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:20] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:25:20] Have you seen him since.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:23] No, I think he lived in Vancouver.

Travis Bader: [00:25:26] Okay.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:26] And he, yeah, he was in his seventies for sure.

Roy Kanda: [00:25:29] Oh, we helped him, we put his boat back on this truck.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:31] I don’t know how he got the boat off. He had it in the back of his truck. So we had to put it back into this truck for him so.

Travis Bader: [00:25:37] This 70 year old guy just lifted this thing out.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:39] And I think he lives somewhere, like deep in Vancouver, like, so he just came out here to go hunting.

Roy Kanda: [00:25:44] Oh he was a  beaut. He was, he loved going out.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:46] I think he said he’s been coming out here for like 30, 40 years so.

Roy Kanda: [00:25:50] Yeah.

Matt Stewart: [00:25:52] Crazy.

Travis Bader: [00:25:52] So at this point in your hunting career, success rate, when you’re going out. High, low, like how far are we into it?

Matt Stewart: [00:26:02] Pretty low. That was what, a year in maybe?

Roy Kanda: [00:26:04] Oh, we were low success rate of that time. I think, I, yeah, I think the odd duck here and there. When Greg came out, when Greg started coming out with us, we started getting more duck. That’s why, that’s right. Cause he’d say, cause when, whenever we didn’t go out with Greg, we’d come back skunked.

Matt Stewart: [00:26:21] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:26:22] And then when we went out with Greg, we’d have a few, so.

Matt Stewart: [00:26:25] He’s a lucky charm.

Roy Kanda: [00:26:26] He was the lucky charm. So if we ever went out without him, we get skunked.

Travis Bader: [00:26:29] Right.

Greg Miller: [00:26:30] I think it was the extra decoys and everything else that you purchased between then and now.

Roy Kanda: [00:26:34] Well, extra decoys and oars. Oars was a big one, we picked up oars. We’ve got our first, we’ve got a full on first aid kit and we even threw in some, what’s it called? Benadryl.

Travis Bader: [00:26:47] Okay.

Roy Kanda: [00:26:47] Because we heard stories of other hunters going out, having allergic reactions and you’re stuck out there.

Travis Bader: [00:26:52] Hmm.

Roy Kanda: [00:26:52] Right. So if you’re having an allergic reaction, what are you gonna do? So now in, in that first aid kit we’ve, we’ve put some Benadryl. We’ve got, I get migraines, so I have Advil and Tylenol in there.

Travis Bader: [00:27:01] Yeah.

Matt Stewart: [00:27:02] Water.

Roy Kanda: [00:27:03] Water yeah. We got water in there. We just got smarter. We try to minimalize what we have on the boat now. Like I started off with a really cool bag from Bass Pro or wherever it was. And it was like, it was the coolest thing bag ever. But when I took it out in the marsh, even though it was a floating bag, it was fully soaked.

Travis Bader: [00:27:22] Really?

Roy Kanda: [00:27:23] So I bought a bag that was maybe 60% less, but it’s a full on dry bag. Everything goes in one bag now, minimal. Everything is minimal, not fancy, just minimal.

Travis Bader: [00:27:34] And that’s the way to do it too. Like any, any new hobby you get into, it’s all accumulation of knowledge, accumulation of kit, everything else. And at some point, you start realizing how little you actually need to go out and be successful. What is your load outlook like now compared to when you first started?

Matt Stewart: [00:27:53] We probably have half the stuff. I mean, we have some more decoys now, but other than that, I think it’s like the bare minimum. I bring, like, I don’t know, we have water that stays in the boat in the toat in the boat. I think I do a power bar, ammo, second pair of gloves and that’s probably about it I’d say.

Roy Kanda: [00:28:15] I’m the exact same, ammo, a snack, extra gloves always. I learned that quick, those extra gloves, especially when it’s you try to retrieve something in your whole hand is wet. That’s why we bought Greg some decoy gloves. Poor guy who had freezing hands the whole time. But yeah, very minimal.

[00:28:35] And that one pack, we pack everything. Each guy’s got one pack he brings. We have the decoys, the first aid kit’s in the boat.  I think that’s it. Greg, what else do you bring?

Greg Miller: [00:28:47] No, I think that’s pretty much it. We each have our own dry bag, life jacket, obviously and gloves is the key. I bring a VHF radio usually. I think we have one on the boat now that we, we leave as well. But yeah, minimal. You just want to have everything with you, so I don’t wanna be carrying around a lot of stuff, I think is what we found. And keep, keep drying and warm, stay out there longer.

Matt Stewart: [00:29:10] Less stuff in the boat too.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:11] Yeah. Especially when we’re coming on and off the boat, we’re actually. We’re, we’re very safety conscious. Like I’m not getting into the boat without handing Matt or Greg, my firearm first.

Travis Bader: [00:29:23] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:23] I’m just, why not give, you know, it’s the same thing goes for all of us. We just go very slowly, take our time, do it the right way, way.

Travis Bader: [00:29:30] And that’s key, it really is. You only gotta make a mistake once.

Matt Stewart: [00:29:34] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:35] We we’re, we’re also, we always like to drink the three of us, but we don’t drink when we hunt.

Travis Bader: [00:29:41] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:41] That’s just a rule we have, we drink when we golf, sure. We drink at each’s homes.

Travis Bader: [00:29:46] Sure.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:47] We don’t drink when we hunt.

Travis Bader: [00:29:51] I think that’s a smart rule. I know some people will.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:53] Yeah, and to each their own, but we will have a drink after.

Travis Bader: [00:29:56] Sure.

Roy Kanda: [00:29:57] Like we normally pull up to my garage and we’ll go in my garage and sit there and either be happy that we harvested some ducks or like, Oh, we better get some next time and we’ll enjoy it then for sure. But there’s too many things that can go wrong when you’re out in the marsh. Especially for me as a non-swimmer, I did invest in an automatic life vest.

Travis Bader: [00:30:19] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:30:19] One, it’s slimmer, so it’s easier to maneuver and two, anything could happen there. I’ve fallen a couple of times out there or have lost my step and that sand can really grab you.

Travis Bader: [00:30:30] Yeah, it really can.

Roy Kanda: [00:30:31] It can grab you quick. And even in the Marsh you’re walking around. There’s all kinds of dips there. So if I’m going for a little walk, my own, I throw, I throw my, my life vest on.

Travis Bader: [00:30:41] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:30:42] Yeah any time I’m jumping on the boat or off the boat, I’ve got it on for sure. I’ve got beside me when I’m on the marsh. We don’t mess around that way.

Travis Bader: [00:30:50] No, that’s smart.

Greg Miller: [00:30:50] I think my first time out with you guys, you got out of the boat and then I went to get out and I was pulling the boat up and took a step too far and woosh!

Travis Bader: [00:30:59] And you’re in.

Greg Miller: [00:30:59] And I’m in yeah. It was probably up to my, just under my armpits I think.

Travis Bader: [00:31:03] You’re going with chest waders as well?

Greg Miller: [00:31:04] Yep. Yeah. I, originally it was kind of, you know, as they experienced and upgrade their equipment than I would, I would take their hand me downs. But I’ve obviously now purchased my own stuff as well, but I think I still got the original wader hand me downs that I picked up off these guys. And so yeah, you don’t realize, you know, you really got to watch your footing cause it can happen quickly.

[00:31:24] And of course, they’re, they’ve got their backs to me as they’re walking to get set up and you know, you’re all of a sudden in the water and luckily the boat was there and I was able to grab it and kind of embarrassed over that. I think I did admit to it, but lil embarrassed.

Travis Bader: [00:31:37] Well, you’re out there helping them set up the decoys.

Greg Miller: [00:31:39] Yep.

Travis Bader: [00:31:39] You’re helping in the blind, or you’re helping set up wherever you’re going to be at, be hunting and the retrieval.

Greg Miller: [00:31:46] Yeah, I do the retrieval well. So I think that we’re kind of creatures of habit all, all three of us. So we kind of go to the same, the same spot and we know where our set up. We do a little bit experimenting in other areas, but we, we kind of have our favourite spot. So we’ll get to the, get to the place we take our boat normally.

[00:32:02] And the two of them will jump off when we’ve got land decoys as well as the blind. And then I’ll go back and start deploying the water decoys. And so they’ll be on the shore kind of guiding where we, where we want them to go. And then once it’s set up, then I can kind of bring the boat around again and kind of all sit back and admire what we’ve done.

[00:32:18] And if it’s going to work this time, or if it’s not going to work, you know, I think we’ve changed the setup quite a few times. And you add, add the robos here and there and add more decoys, but I think we’ve got it pretty much down now pretty good. And, and then if, if they’re successful and then they have one, then I’ll go jump in the boat and I’ll go out and do the recovery.

[00:32:38] And that way again, they can kind of focus just on watching what’s around and seeing what’s going on there. They’re obviously very cautious of the fact that I’m recovering.

Travis Bader: [00:32:46] Right.

Greg Miller: [00:32:46] In front, but once I get it and I’m far enough away, then if another flock comes, they can go back at it right. And there’s been times where I just kind of hunkered down in the boat and then they’re going to get another one then I don’t have to go back. But yeah, so we’re pretty successful in recovery. So it’s been good.

Travis Bader: [00:33:04] So are you researching as well? Are you looking up like how to set up the decoys and.

Greg Miller: [00:33:07] I think we have kind of enough conversations about it. I’ve for sure looked online. I’ve looked on sign, online on calling.

Travis Bader: [00:33:15] That was, that was going to be my next question.

Greg Miller: [00:33:17] So I think we’ve all done that.

Roy Kanda: [00:33:18] He likes to duck call for sure.

Greg Miller: [00:33:19] Yeah, I don’t know if my, Matts, for sure the best duck caller we have. If you’ve probably seen me in rush hour traffic on the way home from work, I’ll be sitting in my car, practicing my duck calling. It’s definitely something that takes a while to master and we all, I think Kanda at one point said, Greg, you’re scaring ’em away, just stop, stop. You’re scaring ’em away.

[00:33:39] So we all kind of have our strengths and duck calling right now is not mine for sure I think that’s a that’s Matts. I think I’ve got about seven or eight duck calls. Cause I blame it on the duck call more than the caller.

Roy Kanda: [00:33:49] Just like golf clubs, right?

Greg Miller: [00:33:50] Exactly. Exactly.

Roy Kanda: [00:33:51] It’s the clubs, it’s the clubs.

Greg Miller: [00:33:52] The new bag I got. Not shooting very well.

Matt Stewart: [00:33:53] I find calling hard. Like I’m like you look at it online and these guys make it look so easy and this is how I do it and this is what you should do. And I dunno, I, I guess you gotta practice a lot, but I just I’m like, okay, when do I call them in? When do I don’t. Am I doing it right? Am I scaring them away? So I don’t know, it’s difficult.

Greg Miller: [00:34:15] But I think there’s a couple cases where you’ve actually called them in, which is more than I think me and Roy can say. We’re even sitting there, we see them circling over and then you do the call and you definitely see them make that turn and then come towards us, which, you know.

Roy Kanda: [00:34:28] You know, what kind of a day it’s been when Matt’s calling, if he’s calling really hard, we’re pretty dry. He wants those bad.

Travis Bader: [00:34:35] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:34:36] You know what? The one thing we’ve learned too, for sure is, and I wasn’t a believer at first. It’s all about the blind. I thought, no, we’re good. We’re good, they can’t see us. Matt said they can see us, they can see us. I’m like who cares that they see us we’re not moving. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but, the better we got at it and the better our blind was the more successful we were.

Travis Bader: [00:34:57] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:34:57] It was, I was like, really? Is it that big of a deal? Bud your going overkill man, you’ve got this coming in, you’re ordering from this place. But no, it really is a big deal. The blind is a huge part of everything.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:10] That was a big thing for us. Big turning point was them because when we first went out, we were just like, kind of sitting there in the reeds. Like we, I don’t know.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:18] We sat there.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:19] Mostly exposed.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:20] We had two stools.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:20] Two stools just sitting there.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:22] Sitting there.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:22] Well at first we didn’t have a stool. We’re crouching down.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:24] Yes.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:24] So uncomfortable.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:25] But then, then we got stools and we got bags.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:26] Yep, there you go.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:27] We’re progressive.

Travis Bader: [00:35:28] You had full on stools, you don’t have the bird bucket. Turned upside down, you sit on it, turn it over to the other way and bring your birds out.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:35] Oh.

Travis Bader: [00:35:36] Bird bucket.

Matt Stewart: [00:35:38] We just have these little collapsible stools that just throw on the boat and don’t take up a lot of room so yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:35:44] Every guy has got, got his job when we go out there, it’s very systematic. You know, these guys are driving, after we get there they w, I jump off to, to launch the robos. Matt and Greg, have got the other decoys going. Once that’s set up we, we sit and we wait together and it’s very systematic.

[00:36:02] And half the time we don’t even talk, I just it’s, it’s so serene out there. Like for me, everybody that knows me would never have imagined that I’d be a duck hunter.

Travis Bader: [00:36:13] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:36:14] No. I love being out with these guys. It’s it’s brilliant, it’s the best time ever. It’s something new. It’s just it’s I can’t explain it. It’s brilliant.

Travis Bader: [00:36:22] How would you compare it to golf?

Roy Kanda: [00:36:24] Ooh.

Travis Bader: [00:36:26] I know you’re quite into golf.

Roy Kanda: [00:36:27] Yeah I’m a hardcore golfer. So last year, I’ll put it this way, it was a duck hunting season and I was going out with the boys here and my brother called me he goes, I got a tee time at Mayfair lakes. And I love Mayfair, like it’s my course of play and I said sorry bud I’m hunting tomorrow, it’s hunting season. So now it’s either hunting season or it’s golfing season. There are they’re fully, even for me.

Travis Bader: [00:36:50] Really.

Roy Kanda: [00:36:50] I have two seasons; it’s hunting season or it’s golfing season. If I’m hunting, golfing doesn’t matter.

Travis Bader: [00:36:55] Are you a competitive golfer?

Roy Kanda: [00:36:56] No. Just go out to have a good time.

Travis Bader: [00:37:00] So I guess the next question where I’m going with that is hunting. Is that a sort of competitive thing with you guys when you go out, it’s like, Oh no, they’re coming over, Matt’s going to get it, better be mine.

Roy Kanda: [00:37:12] Zero.

Greg Miller: [00:37:12] No, I don’t think so.

Roy Kanda: [00:37:13] If for us, sorry Greg, go ahead.

Greg Miller: [00:37:15] Yeah, no, I don’t see that at all. And you know, Roy’s a pretty competitive guy. I don’t think we play around a golf where there isn’t money of some sort involved in it. But not with not with hunting. They, I mean, they have their systems, they have their stances.

[00:37:29] They, they know, you know, who’s, who’s duck it is depending on what side it’s coming from, but there’s no competitor. I mean sure ,afterwards it’s nice to say, Oh, I got three, I got two. But there’s no competitiveness during the actual hunting.

Matt Stewart: [00:37:42] It’s a team effort for sure. When we’re out there set up and then yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:37:47] If, if there’s one duck that’s harvested, doesn’t matter who got it cause we’re going to split it.

Matt Stewart: [00:37:53] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:37:53] Three ways.

Travis Bader: [00:37:54] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:37:55] So it’s all about like, if I’m having a bad shooting day and Matt brings down half a dozen, well, I got two coming my way for dinner ,that’s great.

Travis Bader: [00:38:03] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:38:04] No, it’s all about what comes to the boat. It’s never, I want these guys to do well.

Travis Bader: [00:38:09] That is the best way to do it.

Roy Kanda: [00:38:11] It’s a team. It’s how many can, so Matt and I play a game. So we have different goals we want to hit right? So, okay, Roy has to do a doubleheader, we got two going, coming in, we’ve got to go boom, boom. Roy, let’s see how many we can take while our, you know, we cut the engine on the water and take one down as we’re in the boat. It’s more of a team game.

Travis Bader: [00:38:30] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:38:31] How many can we bring down together? That’s what we’re going for.

Matt Stewart: [00:38:33] Nope. It’s worked out well so far. So we share, we share the ducks and yeah.

Greg Miller: [00:38:41] And they’re always discussing ways to improve. I don’t think we’ve gone out on a trip. We’ve come back and said we were happy with the way it was set up. Or we were happy with what I think we’ve improved something almost every, even if it comes to the weights on the decoys, right?

[00:38:55] I mean, we kept on losing the decoys because of the river current and all of a sudden they’d be floating away and you have to go chase someone and we gotta buy bigger weights now and then you got a big, bigger blind. And there’s always improvements I think that, I don’t know if we’re ever going to be happy with, with the setup. Especially when there’s gear guys at the table.

Travis Bader: [00:39:16] Yeah. Earlier Matt, you were talking about something with your, your decoys, your floating decoys. You have a different system now that you’re, you’re trying with them.

Matt Stewart: [00:39:22] Yeah, I think the first we had line and a J-Weight.

Greg Miller: [00:39:26] Yeah.

Matt Stewart: [00:39:26] Right. So you’d adjust. Okay, I think it’s this deep here and it’s dark too right? So, and then you put ’em down, tide comes up, they sort of float away. You gotta, you go out and get ’em. And they’re just a pain to kind of retrieve. So I think it’s called a Texas rig, I think is what it’s called. So it’s got like a, a certain length line.

[00:39:45] I think we use like a 10 foot line, it’s got like a mushroom weight on there and it’s this kind of nylon coated wire I think is what it is right? And then you just kind of hook them on this carabiner and then you just kinda grab them all at once so. They don’t really tangle up.

Greg Miller: [00:40:00] Nope.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:01] You just unhook the carabiner or you just toss them out where you want them. And then when we retrieve them, you just hook the carabiner on and you just drag ’em all up and pull them into the boat. So that’s, that’s been good. I think it’s been way better.

Greg Miller: [00:40:13] Yeah. Way quicker deploying them and recovering. And you can also deploy it from shore, we’ve done a couple of times.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:18] Yeah. You just throw them out. The J-Weights is just a, it was just hard.

Greg Miller: [00:40:21] It was a pain.

Travis Bader: [00:40:21] Big tangled mess.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:22] Yeah tangled mess. Exactly.

Travis Bader: [00:40:24] Yeah.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:24] And then the current they drag and then they drift into each other and it’s just, yeah.

Greg Miller: [00:40:28] You’re guessing exactly how long you want the line out and.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:31] Yeah.

Greg Miller: [00:40:31] If you miss it then yeah you’re chasing decoys all after all, all morning as we’re hunting.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:35] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:40:36] Yes, not fun.

Greg Miller: [00:40:37] No.

Travis Bader: [00:40:38] I’ll have to put a link to that in the podcast notes so the listeners can check out what that looks like.

Matt Stewart: [00:40:42] Yeah and you can get like a, I think it’s popular down in the States and they’re hunting on these like shallow ponds so you get like a three foot or four foot ones and 10 feet are pretty long, but we kinda need them here, but. It all works well. I like it so.

Travis Bader: [00:40:56] So you’re a couple years into it now, if you’re to turn around and try and give some advice to beginning you, what would you guys say?

Roy Kanda: [00:41:04] Safety.

Travis Bader: [00:41:06] Okay.

Roy Kanda: [00:41:06] That’s my first thing right there, especially for someone like me, like what I did the first time we went out and going into the marsh without a life vest. That’s, that’s just dumb.

Travis Bader: [00:41:17] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:41:17] For anyone, not just, not just me a non-swimmer. I think for anyone, because you could, we could have fallen off and gone deep there and you’re holding a box of ammo and a firearm, and you’re trying to protect this gun you just bought that’s so expensive and you don’t want to go down.

[00:41:33] Even with boat safety for us, we weren’t the smartest when we started. Thank God Gregg came along, we got lights and oars now. For sure, for me, one of the biggest things is safety.

[00:41:45] Even like, I love the way we handle our firearms when we’re out there, I love the way we pass our firearms on the boat. I love that we don’t drink. Those are big things for me. Cause I’ve got two daughters at home and a wife and I got too much to live for, to, to be silly about it.

Matt Stewart: [00:42:02] Yeah, I think if we could have asked somebody some advice or gone out, like almost like a mentor, you know, I think now looking back, I probably would ask these questions to these people who are experienced, you know. Cause not that I’m super experienced, but if somebody who’s new to it came and asked me, I would have no problem, like telling them, I might not tell them where to go exactly.

[00:42:23] But I’m going to tell him what to do and maybe what not to do and how I got into it. I think that would be the biggest thing for me is I would just ask more questions on what to do and yeah. Try and go out with somebody who knows what they’re doing even once or twice so.

Travis Bader: [00:42:38] How do people find that?

Matt Stewart: [00:42:41] I don’t know. I just think you’ve, you just gotta be brave enough to ask the guy at the local store or, I dunno, it might be more intimidating to just walk the bus, somebody who’s out at the boat launch, but it’d be, I don’t know. That’s hard. It would be nice if there was some kind of program or something like, I don’t know. It’s hard, but.

Roy Kanda: [00:43:03] Yeah, I think it definitely, I think that if there was a facility that would offer programs for first time hunters. It would do extremely well. I think any place that say, Hey, we’re looking for first time hunters, we want to take you out. We’ll show you the do’s and don’ts and the etiquette and different things. I think that make a huge difference. I would sign up for a course like that in a heartbeat.

Travis Bader: [00:43:23] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:43:24] Oh yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:43:25] I think they’d have to tread a pretty careful line on that because then the guide Outfitters get involved in are you guiding or are you teaching or.

Matt Stewart: [00:43:32] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:43:33] So it’s, .I think that’s part of the reason why we don’t see too many of those out there.

Matt Stewart: [00:43:38] Even if you didn’t hunt, but they just sort of show you like, you know what you should, and shouldn’t do. Even just showing you that kind of thing. Not, not just sitting in the blind and actually hunting for the ducks, but just some basic stuff. Like how do you set decoys? How do you put them out? Like, even if you’re not hunting from, but just, this is how you sort of do it.

[00:43:58] Just an idea. You know, you don’t have to give all your tricks away to these people, but some idea would be good, you know? This is kind of, this is how ducks fly in, or this is what they do. You know what I mean? Like the behaviours and stuff like that. And little things like that would be very helpful. So, but I just, I don’t know where you get that. You gain that knowledge, I guess, but from.

Travis Bader: [00:44:21] Grandpa YouTube.

Matt Stewart: [00:44:22] There you go.

Travis Bader: [00:44:24] And that’s where most people are getting it from.

Matt Stewart: [00:44:25] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:44:26] How bout you Greg?

Greg Miller: [00:44:27] We’ve had a lot of discussions on Friday nights over the odd beverage, talking about what we’re going to improve on or what we can look up and try to try to do better. I think just, I mean, I’m not actually doing the hunting side of it, but I think it’s, if you, I mean the safety for sure.

Travis Bader: [00:44:41] Well, you kind of are. Everything other than pulling the trigger.

Greg Miller: [00:44:43] Everything other than pulling trigger for sure. And I think it’s just taking your time is the big thing. You can’t rush into anything. You gotta make sure you got the right spot and you got the right setup. And, you know, if you’re not ready and they’re flying over, you gotta just take your time.

[00:44:58] And even, even when they are coming in and these guys sometimes get a little anxious and it’s easy for me to criticize because I’m not the one with the firearm or pulling the trigger, but you know, I’ll sit back and watch and see this come in. And I’m like, okay, they’re, they’re going to land and all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom. And they all fly over it.

[00:45:14] It’s like ugh, you could have waited a little longer, but I, I get the anticipation and the, you know the want to take them down right away right.

Travis Bader: [00:45:22] Right.

Greg Miller: [00:45:23] So I think w with just, it’s a, it’s a sport somewhat like fishing where you just need to have the patience and you’re not going to be successful every time you go out. And I think that’s part of the attraction for me is, you know, going out and see how successful we can be every time.

Travis Bader: [00:45:36] Totally. If it was easy.

Greg Miller: [00:45:39] Absolutely.

Travis Bader: [00:45:39] There’d be no. It wouldn’t hold that same appeal. If that learning curve wasn’t there, if you weren’t always constantly learning something new every time you went out.

Greg Miller: [00:45:47] Yeah, for sure.

Matt Stewart: [00:45:48] I agree.

Travis Bader: [00:45:50] I think this gives a good sort of intro for new people kind of getting into it.

Matt Stewart: [00:45:54] Yeah. Few adventures, few stories, but.

Roy Kanda: [00:45:57] And definitely, you know, starting at the beginning, going to the gun club to get comfortable with your firearm.

Matt Stewart: [00:46:04] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:05] Was a big thing.

Travis Bader: [00:46:07] Was that intimidating?

Roy Kanda: [00:46:08] Hundred percent.

Matt Stewart: [00:46:08] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:46:09] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:09] From a guy who thinks he’s all tough and yeah, it was very, very intimidating.

Travis Bader: [00:46:13] Yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:14] Very intimidating just being at the gun club. Didn’t want to do the wrong thing right. So being able to handle your firearm, knowing how to take your firearm apart and put it back together again, also very important.

Travis Bader: [00:46:26] Yes.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:26] Knowing how to clean it, also very important. Before you go out hunting. Knowing how to do those things. I think it’s a big deal.

Matt Stewart: [00:46:34] Yeah. Being comfortable, shooting your gun was a big thing. Like I think the first time we went and did trap and we didn’t know the etiquette, I think we, I kind of looked it up online. We kind of went there, we stood back for probably a good half an hour, kind of just watched sort of what was going on and be like, okay, I think we got this. And then, you know.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:54] I asked a guy. I asked a guy.

Matt Stewart: [00:46:55] And you asked the.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:56] I asked the.

Matt Stewart: [00:46:57] Older gentleman there.

Roy Kanda: [00:46:57] No I asked the younger guy, the older guys later I asked the younger guy and this young guy was great. He’s like, bud, watch your muzzle. Do this, only one in the chamber, don’t close it. He was great. Cause I was nervous. I was like, Oh my God, I’m so nervous, so nervous. so he was very helpful. And then poor Mattie over here got one stuck. He was trying to get it out, that’s when the old guy gave you a hard time.

Matt Stewart: [00:47:24] Yeah, I was trying to get it out, it was stuck in there. He’s just, Hey, just watch where you’re pointing your gun or whatever. And rightfully so like.

Travis Bader: [00:47:30] Sure.

Matt Stewart: [00:47:30] I don’t think it was anything dangerous, but he just said, Hey, just watch, watch your direction there. And that was good.

Roy Kanda: [00:47:35] It was good.

Matt Stewart: [00:47:36] That was good, called me out. But he was, he was good. He sort of explained, you know, I’ll be at the start here and this is how it’s going to work. We go down the line of five and each one takes one shot. So after that, once we got comfortable, it was way better like that for after that first time, I felt way more comfortable for sure.

Roy Kanda: [00:47:56] Oh yeah.

Matt Stewart: [00:47:56] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:47:57] Did you have a lot of people over your shoulder trying to give advice?

Matt Stewart: [00:48:01] Not really there. There was a, a gentleman who worked there, he’s like, I think you’re a little bit high, those guns shoot high. And I’m like, okay, I don’t know. I didn’t really pay attention to them, but when we were there, nobody really tried to give too much advice, to be honest so.

Roy Kanda: [00:48:17] Just watch your muzzle, watch your muzzle.

Matt Stewart: [00:48:19] Yeah. Which is it should do, but.

Roy Kanda: [00:48:21] Absolutely.

Matt Stewart: [00:48:22] Nobody really tried to give us any advice on what we were doing wrong. I was holding my gun in the wrong place, like I learned that. I had a huge bruise on my shoulder. I’m like, I was way too low. So I knew I wasn’t hitting anything, but I mean, that was learning experience. I didn’t do that ever again so.

Travis Bader: [00:48:37] Right.

Roy Kanda: [00:48:38] But the feeling when you hit your first clay target.

Matt Stewart: [00:48:40] Oh yeah.

Roy Kanda: [00:48:41] Oh magic. Magic. Almost as good as when you harvest your first duck.

Matt Stewart: [00:48:46] Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Travis Bader: [00:48:50] I love it.

Matt Stewart: [00:48:51] Yeah.

Travis Bader: [00:48:51] Well guys, thank you very much for being on the, on the show and for sharing your experiences. That’s definitely encouraging for other people out there to know that it is intimidating. Like I, I was raised around firearms. I’ve been going to the ranges ever since I’ve been a wee one and I’ve got a little bit different perspective, but somebody just brand new getting into it, that’s a lot to take in.

Matt Stewart: [00:49:12] For sure.

Travis Bader: [00:49:13] Thanks very much guys.

Roy Kanda: [00:49:14] It was a good time. Thanks for having us.

Matt Stewart: [00:49:15] Yeah, thanks for having us for sure.