Wade Shoemaker - Migra Ammunitions, Photography, Waterfowl

We talk about that and pretty much all things duck hunting , public land hunting with your kids ,

how we got into all this and our shared journey through a similar career path prior to being in the waterfowl industry . It's a fun conversation . Wade is an awesome guy . Hope you guys enjoy it . Welcome to the Lab , a Cornerstone Gundog Academy podcast focused on all things gundogs , good times and the great outdoors . I'm your host , barton Ramsey .

What's up everyone . Welcome to another episode of the Lab . I'm here with my buddy , wade . Wade . Tell everybody hello and what's up .

I don't know how it happened , but maybe when I switched macbooks or something , it just like cemented those names in . So it's like yeah , you , my wife , my dad there's very few people . So yeah , that was a long time ago . Uh , I'm glad to have you on here . I'm glad to chat . We've been having a lot of fun with this thing .

I'm happy to kick it back off . Uh , you're on the list of people I wanted on here , and I also knew it wasn't going to happen until duck season was over . So before we get into some like further back history , how was your 2024-25 waterfowl season ?

Um , but the cool thing about that , other than the obvious , is , like when we would go hunt , that we we had a decent hunt everywhere we went , and we're only there three or four days at a time and if you've done it for any period of time , you know that if you can go somewhere for three or four days and have one great hunt or one good hunt , that's a

, that's a win , right ? So , measured by that , we had a great season . Um , even at home we had some , you know , pretty decent hunts and I've talked to a lot of people and that's kind of the consensus is it was , it was . It wasn't a banner year for everybody , but it was , it was a good one .

I don't I haven't complaints about last year yeah , that's uh .

I wound up being in some cool places when it got right and the whole year I was almost like dreading this duck season because I just kept thinking there's no chance it's going to be anything

like last year . I'm going to have to like reel in my expectations and it wasn't . It was consistent and we had some really good hunts , but it was nowhere near like last year . But it was fun because I was able to really like dial back the expectation and just say I'm here to have a good time , and we did .

But I mean , I think even on that big trip I did at the end of the year we averaged maybe 23 birds a hunt , which is great , like you , fine , and we had some that were like 60 , some that were like two or three , but for the most part we had some 20 to 30 bird days , which is awesome for dog work , like super fine .

The problem was the year before we had like a 14 day stretch where I think we averaged right under a hundred . So it was dumb , it was just yeah . But that was when that big freeze happened . Yeah , and I went out to Kansas and Oklahoma and you just find them on the river and just shoot them until you're . Yeah , it's crazy .

Let's talk a little bit about I want to kind of I want to work our way backwards , but you mentioned boat ramp tour . I just drove home yesterday from South Carolina where I was at parish majors uh SOK East training seminar . Hanging out with our man Q-tip . I got to meet Amanda for the first time , his wife and of course Max was there , and with Cedar 2.0 .

And I'll talk about that in a second . I'd love to have him on here at some point . I just think I might have to have subtitles if we have Q-Tip on here . That Gaffney accent of his that's the strongest Southern accent of any guy I may know , but Q-Tip yourself boat ramp tour . Tell me a little . Tell us .

A lot of people around here may have no idea who are listening . What is the boat ramp tour ? What's that look like for you throughout the season ?

It was birthed from the running gun tour , if I'm going to be transparent about it , and we wanted to do something . You know , matt Gray , matt Gray and myself want to do something with that running gun to where . It was like let's do this , let's go to the boat ramp and hand out stuff . You know , we didn't know what that was , but that got shot down .

They were like no , we can't do that . Ok , so now fast forward . We're at Migram . I'm like , hey , this is a great idea , we should probably do this . So we did it .

Marketing when we're not hunting public for this , you know , and and I guess , give the consumer an idea of like , hey , these people are just like us , like this is what we're doing , you know , and we are , I mean , when I'm not hunting for boat ramp tour during the season , I'm hunting public at home or driving to the same boat ramps of the boat ramp tour

and hunting those you know . So yeah , man , I guess the easy answer is boat ramp tour is sort of as a marketing tool and , turned in , it's evolved into a lot more for us and , I think , for the industry or the hunting , not the industry the duck hunting community as a whole turned into more than what we could have ever expected and we're grateful for it .

That's why I'm bringing this up . So I'm sorry . Um onyx hunt , yeti coolers or yeti um lucky duck , benelli sitka gear , general tire decked um havoc boats , gator tail motors and turtle box audio yeah , I had most of that list in the back of my head , which is awesome .

Right , there's an accessible industry , much like wakeboarding . You get in , you go to a tournament , you realize like you're at lunch with pro riders and yeah no one's too big . Well , most people are not too big for their britches .

Right , we're all hanging out at world duck and like it's not a you know we don't , we don't have like duck famous folks , but no , there are .

There are people who work inside the industry and and for you guys , when I started this podcast , one of my major goals was to build bridges , so I've been very intentional to talk to people who may train dogs differently than I do or have a different philosophy of breeding , and then I balance in talking to people who just work in this industry who I feel like

are important aspects to the waterfowl community , which is why you're on my list . So talk a little bit about what that looks like with these companies . How eager are companies to do stuff like this and to show people in the community hey , we are one of you guys and what does that look like when those guys realize that ? Maybe ?

Just walk us through some experiences you've had with boat ramp tour , when you talk to people at the boat ramp who maybe are a little surprised or taken aback that these companies would even be doing this man , I think there's .

people , there's not an audible cool that this brand's doing that or cool that that brand's doing it . It's just they do it collectively and they're like it's cool that y'all and we're not an infomercial when we go out there , but it's obvious that we're being helped by these brands and they throw it out there .

It's cool that y'all are doing this , you know , because the thing is we're out there at two , 30 or three , 30 in the morning , you know , and it's not like we show up after they come back .

We're there before they go out and then then when we launch our boat to go hunt in the same area they're hunting with , and you know they're , they're kind of taken aback like , oh , you know they're not , they're not going and hunting the , the , the cushy place .

You know , like we all do that and we all love that , but for them , they see that and it's almost like and I can be wrong there's somebody going to see this and be like man .

I got to know what he's talking about , but I think there's a level of respect that comes with it that they they see that and they're like you know , whether we like them or not , we want to support these people For sure , out here doing the same thing we're doing .

But as far as brands being eager , I think I think the number one thing that we've taken from it or you know , q-tip and I talk a lot about this .

We're actually we've had a lot of conversations recently of Q-Tip and I and Mark , our CEO , we're we're building up for next year , you know , because it's going to be a thing for next year as well , and a lot of the conversation really revolves around bandwidth .

Q-tip and I hunt public for fun and there's not a lot of brands in the space that have the ability to do that . Like not that they're not capable of hunting on public . That's just not their thing , you know , and that's okay . We do because we're not right in the head and we prefer it a lot of days . So like we do it .

And then Migra , as a company has the ability to send Q-Tip and I out there , they might be okay with us being out in the field for that many days and not waiting to answer a phone call or whatever that is that we're doing that time of year .

So I think the eagerness from those companies comes from , just like us , being able to be an extension of them , to do something that would be nearly impossible for them to pull off .

Right , it's like , hey , these companies see some guys that are like , hey , we're grinding it out , and it's more or less the company saying , let's get behind that , right , because , you're right , most of these companies don't have a way to say , hey , how can we go hunt on these public spots ?

Well , there is no we to do it , unless you're the guys already doing it or someone's taking you . You know , it's not like you could just show up with the office crew and be like let's go to a duck hole . Doesn't work that way .

Man , you show up to a boat ramp at 3 am and there's a line of people you know like , there's a flow of traffic , there's a , there's a rate at which that boat needs to come off , that trailer and that truck needs to be out of the way before they start getting frustrated and don't even want to have a conversation .

Yeah , there's a lot of things that go into that and , man , it just you got to know every aspect of that to be able to survive and , honestly , if you want to flourish in that world , you better be able to be nimble .

Um , how long have you been with migra and tell us a little bit about your journey ? I want to get into your duck hunting journey in a minute , but your professional journey , um , not not . I don't don't go pre-waterfowl industry yet . We'll get to that in a minute . But , like once you're kind of working in the industry .

What's your journey been to get to migra and how long have you been with those guys ?

You know the guys and outfit , all that stuff they had . I think that was really kind of what opened my eyes to it . I won that photo contest and no , it was before that but that's before outdoor space , but we'll get to that but went there , was frustrated and fed up with where I was at like working the job I had , and went to that deal .

While I was there , my boss called me and said we needed to have a meeting while I was gone which I'd taken off for , and that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back , which sounds petty , but there was a lot of things that led up to that and I was like man , I'm not supposed to be taking work calls right now and I told my buddy in the

hotel room , wes Morrison , you know Wes , oh yeah , wes was with me in Bozeman and I said I'm quitting when I get back was with me in Bozeman and I said I'm quitting when I get back .

And I , sure enough , got home , put my two weeks in and two weeks later I was unemployed , with a hope that I had a good enough network to get me , you know , some jobs to pay my bills with a camera , because I was a photographer and thankfully it was the I think it was man , it was . Was it Pacquiao ? It was , it was Mayweather and Pacquiao or somebody .

It was the first really big , like huge fight seven or eight years ago between maybe it was Mayweather , I don't remember now . But that night , the night of the fight , I got a call from Brooke Richard , who works at Higdon , and he was . He asked me if I could run a camera for their guys . And I'm like well , I know how to .

I know what the buttons are supposed to do . Just tell me where the buttons are , you know , and I can figure it out . So , uh , first job professionally , I guess would be . Uh , I helped film Higdon Outdoors Television for them , uh , one season and then it went from that to picked up some social media accounts throughout that .

Um , an outfitter , a brand in the outdoor space somebody would recognize as the finisher . I ran theirs for a little while yeah and I mean there's a lot of other in between , but that's kind of how it escalated .

Man , um eventually ended up kind of putting roots down at , uh , dry creek for a while , did a lot of things there for six years and then last last year I went full time for migraine and then I had to step away from all the other you know extras that that took up time , migrated that time and that short version man .

There's a lot of details in between that , but but that's the short , the short and sweet version .

He runs a camera but he's just like always there and happy , yeah , and always has great photos coming out on social media . So yeah , I did not know that . I mean , I very distinctly remember your diverged submission and win . I do remember that Because I can't remember if it was before or after .

Brian Mallett won with a picture of red that he took up in North Dakota .

Shout out to the friends at Sitka , the ones remaining at Sitka and and that company in general , because there are a lot of people , I think , who who got sort of like you know , when you're sitting out floating on the beach and the tide just keeps kind of pushing you toward where you need it , Like Sitka , I think has been a big part of that for a lot of

guys which is super cool .

So I really like their stands and we're working on kind of outfitting some of our kennels with some of their their products right now , which is cool . So it's uh , he's always a good dude . He's on the list as well . I'm gonna snipe him out at one point . Yeah , he's good , good guy to talk to .

Um , so you spend a lot of time on the road , uh , after duck season throughout spring and summer . What's life look like then for you outside of work ? Like , give us some stuff you like to do the rest of the time time frame all the way through February .

So when I get back and we start reset I guess that would be last week , two weeks ago or something that I'm starting and man it's , it's try to catch up on sleep , it's try to get something somewhat like consistent with diet , whether that , whether it's a good one or not , it's consistent .

You know Spending more time with the family looking at things around the house that need fixed and trying to catch up on that . We've got probably a 10-foot long line and then a T of another 10 foot that we had a pipe bust underground in our front yard Not bust but leak and apparently it's been going on for a very long time .

We just didn't know it because there was a water standing in my front yard that I didn't know about , oh no . Yeah , dude , so we got that fixed Friday , you know . So it's like things like that . It's a lot of that and trying to find some normalcy , dude or normalcy , I don't know if it's malicy or normalcy .

So tomorrow is mine and Brandy's 14th anniversary .

permission or ability to be like , hey , this is dumb , Like it's her . You know , she's been through it .

I've been married 16 years , 17 years this july , and then you know , naomi's 14 no , is about to be 12 and miriam's 10 , so we're like just right ahead of you guys as far as time of getting married , having kids two years ahead . So when you got married , were you in student ministry at that point ?

Railroad as a transload operator Basically I would load sand into a truck from a rail car that's the easiest way to put that Got married right after I started working there . Six to seven months after we got married is when we took the job as youth pastors at the church . Okay , we went full-time about six or seven months into our marriage .

I mean , I see you in September in Texas and that's like a kickoff for us . And then there probably a lull , you know . But yeah , I don't know , it's like once it kind of gets started , your brain kind of goes there and it's over with .

Yeah , it's like , all right , we're rolling , yeah , and whether you're going to canada or or wherever you know , you're doing teal stuff . Um , and then it's like that , that time period between Texas Teal slash , paloma Blanco and us meeting up at World Duck after . Thanksgiving that flies by so fast . Uh what ?

How has that adjustment been with wife and family and all that ? How do they handle that ? And and what's that like for you , balancing your time on the road , your time at home ?

And the boys , man , the older they've gotten , the more they they understand it , but the harder it is , um , it almost sucked . Where it sucks worse , like when you leave , and they're like , all right , cool , because they get it .

Then you're like , yeah , dang man , you know , now they're kind of scaled over the fact that I've got to roll out um , but but it's the adjustment would be , man , when I get home , um , now the boys are old enough to go hunting with me every now and then you know . So if I have an opportunity to take them to do that , I do that .

And then when I am home I I don't really do a whole lot when it is hunting season other than hunt and try to plan for the next one , so like I'm not running around doing other things . Um , I'm a raggedy version of myself when I'm home in between those hunts . But but I'm home , you know , and the boys , they'll hang out .

You know my youngest , he loves to just like cuddle in bed , so me and him will sit . You know , if I'm not hunting that morning we'll lay in the bed late . I mean , I'm yuck , lazy , slob whatever , but man , that's my favorite thing to do , yeah I love that that's good . Yeah , and that's for me .

That's that's how we kind of adjust , man , we just make sure that when I'm home , that we're , we're together , you know , really present , really can do yeah , that's a great way to put it .

But then , like you , you FaceTime three hours later and they forgot you're gone .

Yeah , like it's . Or the facetime calls when you're on the road , and those are , yeah , it's . It is not probably . I mean , like I'm sure everybody at least can mentally understand , but emotionally speaking , man , when you're , when you travel a lot for work , it is definitely tough , whether it's waterfowl industry or or whatever , with kids , it's tough .

And I think that I do think it's important to note that , because I still think that even now , in 2025 , maybe even more so now , dude , there are lots of people maybe they're listening to this , maybe they never hear this , but there are lots of people out there on social media who would say , man , I'd love to find a way to work in this space and travel

and do that .

I'm not taking away from that , but yeah , there's a level of leaving kids at home that's like dang and wife at home and yeah it's .

They're they're in the old field and they're they're , you know , they , old field and they're offshore and they're working two on , two off , or a month on , a month off , or two months on and one month off , like a lot of those kinds of things . And you know , I kind of I try to put myself , I put it in a perspective for me , just like man .

There's a lot of guys that do this all year you know , and that's how they live their life and that's they're just they got to do it , you know ? Um , so , like I , I try to make it , I try to like put put it in that kind of perspective of , like man , I'm lucky to be able to do what I'm doing and I'm grateful to be busy , um , but it it again .

It doesn't make it suck any less , but I just try to put it in perspective for myself of like all right , wade , don't ? You know , don't , don't complain , you know , don't , don't complain about it ? You , you asked for it .

But he and I are real tight and uh , I never forget last year we he had gone to somewhere with me um oh , I didn't know exactly what it was . He went to purpose with me , falco , and we got back yeah , yeah , and we got back and , yeah , I was like I'm gonna pack up and go to um in WTF for just like a day or two .

Yeah , and he , he , I got . He saw me carrying my duffel bag and he literally was like you always leave us . I was like , bro , I I'm about to whoop your tail . right now I'll just , you just went with me , you know , and it's , it's hard , but there's definitely . I've , I've had the whole like what's the you know what's the trade out ?

We want to be , I mean , literally from every day , from nine to five , unavailable completely for 50 weeks out of the 52 week year . No , I wouldn't , I wouldn't trade what I do for that , you know , cause when , like you said , when I am home , I'm home , my kids are literally 350 feet behind me doing homeschool right now .

I'm surprised they haven't come over here . Yeah , Someone smacked someone else across the head or something .

But Drake , my oldest , he loves the public land stuff , Like he . The earlier we wake up , the more excited he is about it . Love that , and I kind of do . You know there's days I'm like , hey , what time are we leaving ? Well , it's late in the year , nobody's going to be out there .

We'll probably leave our house about 3 , 3 , 4 o'clock , you know , which is normal for most anybody hunting anything . And and he was like , why not two , 30 , you know , because we don't have to ? He's like , oh , okay , you know , but he loves it . And I mean , like I want to say one week we were , we were , uh , I hunted five days .

One time like this this past season , I was home for like seven and I hunted five of them . He was with me for four of those days and the only reason he didn't go five for five is because on day four I told him to stay home and rest because I didn't know how the hunt was going to go .

We were looking we're basically using the hunt as a scout and I was like just sleep . So he did that and hunted with me on day five . So he made the four out of five and um , man , we , we hunted the lake one day . We scouted one day , um , and he was with me for both of them and then we ended up hunting the day .

We scouted just me and him and we shot . I don't know if you saw it , but I did a big instagram story of just that that day , or that little frame , and yeah , it was awesome . Yeah , dude , he , we , that was probably one of my favorite days of the entire year .

Last year was that day we shot like two ducks and , um , the next day , we , we hunted with some buddies and we had a great hunt the next day . I made him sleep .

In the next day , we hunted with some other buddies and one of his friends came cause um , I'm friends with their dad and all that stuff and uh , so he loves it , man , I mean thankfully , um , it really got him .

Last year I took him on his first public land hunt in the 23-24 season and it was like 13 degrees and I wasn't going to take him , but I promised him I'd take him and it was the last day we were leaving for boat ramp tour Leg two of the boat or leg three , whatever leg it was like two days later and I said we got to go and everything was froze up .

We went , I put all the clothes on him , I had a heater beside him and , dude , we , one of the probably the best time we had all the whole year . Last year we shot like 42 ducks , dang , and and he , he looked up and he was like this is the . I think this is the greatest day of my life , you know . And then he called himself .

He was like but maybe , maybe the second day he's real analytical . You know , like , but maybe the second day he's real analytical , you know , like , so like he's got to get his stuff right . Maybe the second one . I was like , what do you mean ? He's like remember that one time we shot a speck on the lake , you know ?

And I was like , okay , I get it , but kids , dude .

What do you , what like ? What to you is most important ? If you're taking a seven-year-old out early in the morning and it's that cold , like , what are the have-to-haves and have to do to make that a good experience ?

We had heaters , everything that we that we could possibly imagine , and , dude , we went out there and he had some old , some hand-me-down waders from somebody Drake did , and and we had all his clothes on and it's a 40-minute boat ride from the boat ramp to where we were hunting .

And , dude , he got to where his feet were hurting and he didn't know what was wrong . He just , he just knew they were hurting because they were so cold . And and I really think what happened is there were so many clothes , I think it cut the circulation off and it started tingling kind of thing .

But we had to take his waders off , put his , his , his socks and , you know , his feet by the heater to heat them up and finally put his waders back on and again , but it all goes back . You got to have a heater . I'm sorry on that tangent , but a heater and and a willingness to do something you would only do for your kids .

Because , man , he Drake has a problem of wanting to put his hands in the water . It doesn't matter if it's cold , it doesn't matter if it's warm , just let me put my hands in the water .

And he did that last the day that we shot the 42 , he did that and it got to a point where we were trying to let him shoot his first duck and and he was so cold , his hands were so cold he started crying and I was like , okay , drake , don't cry Like he don't , he don't cry about stuff like that .

He might complain , but you're not going to catch him , just whining Right . Not like this is serious .

So I was like , man , it's all I know to do . So I unzipped my waders , opened my jacket and I said , Drake , shove your hand down my waders and put it on my stomach .

Um , but I didn't mean to get off on that , I'm sorry , I just I would say , man , the number one thing is is be 1000 , certain you've got a heater that that can run and enough gas to keep it going .

Whether it's eating a powdered donut , a gummy worm or a biscuit , it doesn't matter what it is , and you've got to give them that , because if they get hangry at any point in that morning , your morning's over with dude .

If you don't want to go back to the ramp earlier , if you don't want to , you know , if you don't want to hear just upset or whining the whole time , you better have some food , that's it man , I've forgotten the blind snacks a couple times and it's a massive regret .

And what's the problem is that what you will learn is they'll grow up and hate it . Why do you , you know , do you like hunting ?

Well , I don't like being cold , you know it's like all right , well , if you can and we have enough technology now to prevent that , whether it's a little buddy heater or a little propane heater or whatever that might be this year .

For the hands , um , I wear the sitka muff , you know , yeah , and um , noah has , you know he has all the sitka gear you could want for his deck . You've seen him . He's decked out . You know , he's ready to rock and he , uh , he hunted every day of our long trip this year with that sitka muff on . That was his muff .

He has his beanie and he , he had a whole pack in the dog trailer of hand warmers the xl hand warmers , yes , and then the stick on foot warmers and , dude , he would put like four of those hand warmers in that sitcom off . And so my hands got cold a few times and he was like here you can borrow my sitcom off and I stick it in .

It's like an oven in there . It was great . So just figuring out little tricks and tips to make sure they don't get cold and then having snacks , man , their blood sugar gets low or they get hangry . We hunted with Connor on Youth Day a couple years ago and both Noah and Naomi had single shot 410s and I'm going to have him on , we'll tell the story .

But I think each of them went through a full box of 410 shells and did not kill a duck . And we were in the east hole at wild wings and we had at one point there were like 20 25 ducks just swimming in the decoys , like it was .

If it had been adults it would have been like you know , this was the hundred and noah is just like so mad that he's missing these ducks and I he was . He literally hung his gun up on a tree and officially quit duck hunting . He said I'm done . I gave him a pop tart and like 20 minutes later he was like a different kid .

He was like I'm back , I'm good . And connor was like was like no , you can't , you're done . You said you're done , you know he said you were done . I made him write a Michael Jordan comeback letter before he could hunt again . So it's , uh , yeah , it's , it's . Those are the things you can control and I'm all about .

You can't control if it's going to be a good hunt or not , right , and if it's going to be the likelihood that it's going to be a good hunt , that's a great one to take kids on . If the likelihood is , this one probably is going to suck your whole deal about . Hey , we're mostly going to scout , let's let you sleep in bud .

Yeah , because they just don't have quite the patience we do , and you can say all the time oh , they got to learn to go on a bad hunt for sure , but we're talking about an eight-year-old you know like it'll be 14 13 , correct .

This is the year where and we went to the river one day and I was convinced we were about to kill 100 ducks yeah , I was like we're about to smoke them on this river , and it was . And when we got there , the ice , the open area was about a third the size as it had been the night before . And I was like , oh , that's not , that's not ideal .

And , um , we opened it up and got out there and got ready to rock and I think we shot like 20 ducks yeah and noah could just tell I was just like so bummed out because I was like this . You know the hunt didn't match the scout , that's right , that was my deal . But he was just like dad , you okay .

I grow up man yeah man , but he's . But he's older now he gets it . You know what I mean . It's all good , that's cool . Yeah , it's fun . I'm glad you had him out . I misremembered the age , so eight and nine , that's fun , dude . That's a good time to have him , good time to introduce him the right way . Did you let Drake shoot any this year ?

That's cool , and a teal landed at I don't know 35 yards and he's got a , a subcompact , uh , monofeltro , and it's his , you know , and 20 gauge yeah yeah , cool and he shot it and and dude rolled like it was in the water . He hit it and and it rolled like he . I don't know , never seen that happen , but it's not actually easy shot on a teal .

No , not at all , dude . And I was like , oh , all , right , here we go . Uh , so , yeah , he , he shot one . Um , it's actually I've got , we've got it wrapped up . And man , yeah , he got to shoot several more times , but he's not connected again . He did hit a pintail this year when we were at the day we hunted , just me and him .

Uh , it didn't kill it , it got away , but it was right on the water . And then he shot and he hit it , but it , you know , it got away . Um , he's not he's a lot more comfortable with his gun . He's just not long enough really to to hold it . Because he's strong enough to hold it like this , no problem .

But when he goes to aim that arm's so far out , he'll be good this coming up year , I feel like , because he's already grown a little bit since then and when he gets to where he can swing that gun around , I think they're in trouble to be told yeah , I love that .

Yeah , it was really cool . He hit it right in the neck . Uh , that's a once in a lifetime little bit of luck , um yeah , where was that in texas ? you know that was in k . Where was that at ? In Texas ? That was in Kansas . I can't remember if we were in the state of Kansas or Oklahoma , so I don't remember .

But we were with Brenton Wasshausen from Salt Plains and we were just traveling through . He was like you want to go crane hunting ? We went out there and we were in an A-frame and this one landed on the left side and it was starting to take off to fly side .

And it was starting to take off to fly and he leaned over my lap and I just held my ears and he , of course it's a 410 . So it's you just hear , yeah , just fold it over . And I love that gosh dude . Yeah , he shot a little .

Well , he shot a nice drake mallard in the landing strip at wild wings and then he missed a lot with the 410 , a lot , um , yeah , but he got stronger and we went out and then my dad bought him a benelli M2 . Yeah , the youth model , the subcompact , yeah , the subcompact one . And problem is it's a right-handed gun .

He's left-handed , so I'm going to switch him to something this coming year . It's just now getting to where it's starting to bother him with the shells ejected in front of his eyes . But I took him to Falco and JD and Teff put him out there on the skeet range which is probably one of my favorite clay shooting places on earth Is it Falco ?

At night , you know and we walked him through a few little tips and tricks and this was when he was 10 . Yeah , and man , he started smoking them out . He's been a great shot since then . He's a really , but he's left-handed and he's left out dominant and he's strong enough to throw that thing up and he's a kid , so he shoots fast .

Uh , what's the future plans that you can share for for boat ramp tour coming up this next year ?

This year it will start in separate places in October and when that's over we'll do our whole . You know , the normal Arkansas , like louisiana thing , because it just makes sense . You know that's our , that's the , the heart of the mississippi flyway , truly , and and that's really what boat ramp tour was designed around was those type boat ramps .

Um , but yeah , dude , it's , it's cool . We're not really sure on the plans yet for the last part of it . Um , we really just haven't gotten to that . We's cool . We're not really sure on the plans yet for the last part of it . We really just haven't gotten to that . We don't even , we're not even a hundred percent certain the dates for that yet .

You know , like it's , it's , we're not that far in . We've just got the first part ready and or semi ready , and then we're trying to get everything in order of like , you know what , what is the ? You know the brand , involvement and stuff like that you know . We just want to make sure all that's in order before we start trying to .

I guess we want to have the pieces in place before we put them on the board , if that makes sense .

It's evolved into like turning , I don't know , I don't turn over new leaves , not the word . But basically everybody thinks when you pull up to a boat ramp , everybody's a hard ass and a lot of them are and try to be Um , but we've , we've opened that up to .

When we walk up to people , we talk to them and we hang out with them and it does help that our cost of entry is like a free thing of shells . You know , like people are willing to talk for stuff like that .

Sure , when we're planning these things now , like we also take into consideration like where can we have the greatest impact , not just for my group but just for the duck hunting community as a whole ?

And there's a lot of conversations , especially going on right now , about ducks and numbers and stuff like that and access and and all those things and and we are , we're learning that we're sort of a conduit for that conversation from the community to the industry . You know so like .

It's almost like we came to them with a marketing tool and now it's like man it's evolved into . We're able to connect with them and be a conduit , conduit back to to the industry . Um , it's cool man .

The conversation can be very one way and it's companies sort of presenting themselves to the community . Right , here's us , yep , and , and a lot of times you got the people who are participating in waterfowl and the you know , the clients , the customers , the culture there . Sometimes the companies can be they don't hear it , they don't get it , they don't know it .

Yeah , I'll see it and you mentioned that , kind of alluded to that at the beginning but like to be able to sit out and talk to them and then , and then these companies get that feedback directly Like hey , we're kind of missing the mark here , because our guys at the boat ramp that we're hoping to sell this stuff to at some point they don't even care about

that . That's not what they care about at all . So to have a direct conduit of feedback and sharing is pretty awesome and , like I told you , I really want this podcast to build bridges .

Yeah , and in the industry there are a lot of roadblocks between , well , that guy works for that company and I can't you know I'm trying my best in this podcast to tear all that down as much as I can and just say , hey , we're all part of the same team here . We love waterfowling . You know we're all part of the same team here , we love waterfowling .

We've got a whole group of people in this country and all over the world who want to see this sport cease to exist . They do not want to see our grandkids go duck hunting , and so we're really on the same team here . But what you bring up I haven't really thought much about .

There's definitely like , um , a weird cold shoulder kind of mentality when it comes to , like , public land hunting , uh , what you can and can't talk about at the boat ramp and some of that I get . Some of . That's true etiquette and I get that . I had to learn some of that the hard way .

I I first when I was brand new with this and somebody took me to buy a meter and we crushed ducks and I posted a picture about hunting and buy a meter with the ducks . Yeah , my phone blew up Like I was like delete that .

I get that , but I like that y'all are breaking down some of those barriers between folks . That's pretty cool . You shared a little bit of that with me in the season and that's super encouraging to hear .

Like we had our first like push , like , I guess , pushback this year from people at a boat ramp , a couple of them , and uh , well , one of them was pushback , the other one was just a conversation , but , um , you know , guy was upset with it .

I had to have a conversation with him about how social media was , you know , not , the detriment of duck hunting , you know , and I explained to him and we talked and we , you know , we we got back and forth and at the end of the day he took the free bag of shells and and was , you know , good with it ? You know , good with it , you know .

But and the day before that I talked to a guy this is probably 3 am and he's standing , it's cold outside and he's in a white t-shirt and blue jeans and Taylor , she's our marketing manager , she was with us .

We had some of the office people come in and help and do some things , and I walk up and I see this guy standing there , just real stoic , you know , with his arms crossed , and I'm like this is , this is weird . But I got to go say something to him because we're back and forth .

And I walk up to him and I said hey man , do you shoot a 12 or a 20 gauge ? You know , we've got both . I'd love to give you some shotgun shells . And he goes no . And I was like , let me try this again .

I stand there and talk to this dude for 30 house right by that boat ramp and he starts just tearing into these out-of-staters and all this and this public and it's gotten out of hand and his house is here and there's ruts in his ditch because people are parking their truck in his ditch , you know , because the boat ramps under or the the parking for the boat

ramps underwater . So they got to park down the road and he and I get back , get back and forth talking and Does he duck hunt he , he does , yeah , okay , okay , so he's , he is a duck hunter , but he's , he's okay , got it . Yeah , but you know he , whatever he's , he he's from little rock and he has a place here at this boat ramp . And it's like

cool , you know this . To spare you the rest of it , I gave him my business card . When I left I said look , this is , this is what we're doing , this is why I'm out here soliciting shotgun shells , trying to to give to people , you know .

And I said but , like , dude , we just want this thing to be better for everybody and that's why we're out here and that's why these conversations can take place . And , nice , dude , he texted me that evening . He was like hey , wade , thanks for this morning .

It made me have a different view of like , all of out-of-staters and in general , you know , and for us , like and I've never told anybody that story publicly like , not other than just like on the boat ramp tour with pals that are hunting , but like , those are the things that are going on that nobody will ever see because we , we wouldn't ever put them on

camera . We don't want that no , right right you know . But but I do want to have those conversations with people and understand that they're heard and try to be like you say , like the bridge of like hey , man , not everybody's like that , honestly , hardly any of them are like that . It's just a couple of occurrences turned into . You know what's the word ?

An inflated , like it was inflated , it really didn't happen , right .

Well , yeah , man , I mean , and look like that's just a totally different like run . I mean that's not not show up , hang out , go hunting . This is show up way early .

He would probably be a hit at the boat ramp , if we're being honest , you know . I mean he can talk to anybody .

Yeah , and this with your buddies , and it's like this was freaking awesome . You can get that same pumped up feeling for killing , like 24 on private timber , yeah , 2024 mallards , and you're like , dude , this was killer day . You know , you go kill 12 on public and you feel the same .

You know what I mean , and that's not knocking it , that's just like you can get so stoked . You get one big group doing it in the woods on public and you're like , oh , that's it . You know what .

It don't matter , but we did Missouri , kansas , arkansas , and then it was leg three because we went Tennessee , then we went Arkansas , our , and it was leg three because we went Tennessee , then we went Arkansas . Our first day in Arkansas , aubrey went with us and he was ready to go home . There was some stuff .

Renard had to run back quick , had to get his truck worked on . Aubrey was in town , so he went hunting with us .

The next morning , before Aubrey got there , we were talking to people at the boat ramp and he ended up getting there talking to people at the at boat ramp handing out some shells and some of their new funeral pack that's coming out , which is a cool thing too .

But , um , dude , before we left that boat ramp , um , we knew where every single person was hunting , and not because we went through asking , because we , we had those conversations . This is what I meant to say earlier and I forgot .

But we had those conversations with them and and it had me just thinking like you hear all these old timers or not old timers , but people's been hunting longer than 30 years . You know , it's like when we used to hunt here , we knew who everybody was , where they were going and and nobody messes with anybody .

We just went to our hunting spots and and we did our thing . We shot ducks or we didn't , and we just , you know , everybody had their time . They shot him one day , somebody . Somebody shot him another day . It's much of another day , but it was , it was very . It was the closest I'll ever get to the heyday . Right , they used to .

Everybody talks about the heyday and and I'm a I'm a hopeless romantic when it comes to , like , the nostalgia of duck hunting , the way it used to be I just I want that so bad and I know I'm past that , but I'm doing my best to live a little bit of it every day and anyway the guys were talking he's like , well , look , we're going to be over here .

Because after we were going he asked us where we're going . I was like man , I haven't been out here the entire season like this specific area and I was like we're just going to go run to this block of woods and see what happens . He said , well , look , we're going to be over here . He said , so , just so you know that's where we'll be .

I said , okay , cool . And then another truck pulled up and we were talking . The guy in the boat that we had talked to had told them where they were going to be and he's like okay , well , we're going to be here . And they looked at us where we're going to be , down here at the end by the river , and I said , well , how far ?

He said man , almost in it . I said , okay , cool . There was five or six groups of people out there hunting that day and everybody knew where everybody was and everybody killed ducks that day because nobody was on top of each other .

But like that , that another thing for the boat ramp tour is just that's the kind of thing that it's evolved into is like we can have these conversations with people and nobody's threatened by it because we're interested in them , and like when the ducks are our third priority , you know and that's too cool .

Right , you guys are filming some stuff , for maybe I was filming I was filming drew and drew .

His name is cedar , yeah , and uh , he , man , every conversation was I just really like to get a dog like that .

You know , I really won't get me a dog like cedar and man , I'm not gonna go into all the details , but it was like months of talking to q-tip about the best litter and somehow q-tip timed it out to where cedar was going to sok east with parish that spring . So there were going to be several options .

Yeah , and I put him on one and he he had been on a different one and he was kind of unsure and I was like you , tip , I can't guarantee anything , it's genetics dude . I said , but you have a good shot of having a pup that's a lot like cedar from this litter . Yeah , okay man , okay man , okay man . And then I'll never forget that dog .

He got him and he's texting me like every third day . Yeah , not bothering me , he's just like excited .

But this weekend we're all eating steaks for dinner and this is the first time that I had seen Q-Tip and Amanda without Max Dog's , just with like their shadow , oh 100% . And we're sitting there eating and Amanda is like right by where we were eating , where all these little cabins where folks were staying , and you just hear this .

Like the first year the boat ran through we hunted our lake blind and there's no dog door on it , like there's just a door . You park your boat , you walk in to the blind like just float , everything's floating , you know so there's no like doggy door out the front . Like with a , a ladder or steps that come up . Like we shot ducks out front .

Tip would send Max out the back of the blind . He would swim around the blind and he would hand signal into the duck . This is last year , like 2003 . So Max was young , he would do that , get him back in , cool .

But then this year we hunted real foot with a buddy named Jody and his uncle had a blind out there and we were hunting and like it's just thicket of brush , you can't see anything , and he took off and they don't use dogs out there a whole lot because of all the decoys , like all the wires and decoys . They got going on .

But they said well , let's just try it , see what happens . Max got a lot of those ducks . So well , let's just try it , see what happens . Max got a lot of those ducks and it was just off of hand signals and , honestly , just being able to navigate through , you know 11 , 1200 decoys Dang , he crushed it , dude .

I was proud to see him and you know , when you're a pro dog trainer and you're around guys who aren't pro dog trainers , you're like dang , I don't know how they're going to do with this dog . Yeah , because that dog is a representation of Southern Oak , whether it's good or not .

But I've been really proud to see how Q-tip's done with them and it's got some really cool pictures of that dog . I get tagged in them and I'm like , is that Cedar ? Like no , that's .

Dude Just rent like real conversations , like like it's a child that doesn't fully know how to speak yet , you know , like he just has the conversations with him and it's it's fun . I spent a lot of days with Max and and and tip , and it's what you're saying is accurate .

And I told q-tip I said , look , it doesn't always work this way , but I love it when a plan comes together , when you're like , okay , I want a dog like max , and then you wind up with basically max jr and he's doing all the stuff he really wanted him to do and he has the look that you wanted .

And so I'm I'm tickled pink , as q-tip would say , that it worked out for him . Yeah , um , well , awesome dude , we've been going for a while . We're over an hour . I like it my goal is an hour . On all of them and every most people ask what we're going to talk about for an hour . I'm like , don't worry , they'll go by real fast .

You probably don't remember this , and I tell people this all the time . If , like , we're talking about SOK or something like that , like you may or may not remember this , but we were in the hospital , not me and you , but me and Brandy were at the hospital before Drake was born . He had just been . I think it was right before he was born .

He had , or he had just been , I think it was right before he was born , like the night before . And I want to say it was a text . It may have been a text or a call , but out of the blue , you had sent a message and I'm trying to remember if it was .

I think it was a text , but you texted me and you told me basically , hey , congrats , excited for you and Brandy , you know , yada , yada , but you , the purpose of the words was just so you know , or just to let you know , just go in . You basically say go into survival mode , do everything you got to do or you can to make sure to take care of God .

I wish I get the words perfect . I'm not , but the gist of it was make sure you know you're taking care of mama , make sure you know you do everything . You can be a great dad and everything's going to be OK .

And I don't know if that was a text or call , but I want you to know that I'll never forget it and I want to tell you thank you , because I think that was one of the coolest things anybody's ever done and , for whatever reason , it was on your heart to do it .

I'm glad you did it and just know that I'll never forget that and I will always be thankful for it .

Like I'm sure I generally everybody thinks Barton's not worried about it because I'm pretty carefree in that way . But man , I remember being at the hospital losing my mind . I was like I am not equipped to take care of this . You know what I mean . So yeah , I try my best in those moments to be a little bit of an encouragement . Look at you now .

You made it just fine .

those first few days . I've got a friend that has a newborn baby now and it's like just keep , keep work , keep doing every day , wake up , get through that day , and then you turn around you're like well , my kid's 10 , yes , wild , how fast it all goes by . I love it . Well , I appreciate you bringing that up .

Glad you made it glad , glad that I get to run into you often as a part of this whole waterfowl journey thing , looking forward to the next one . If people out here are listening and they want to find Wade Shoemaker , they want to find Boat Ramp Tour , they want to find Migra , how do they do that on social ?

And I mean now , mean , now we are going to expand , give it another year or two , as long as everything keeps moving the way it's moving . There's going to be an expansion after this season and it'll be a cool one if it runs along the lines that I'm thinking it's going to run and everybody will hear more about that soon , but it'll be pretty cool to see .

But this year Arkansas .