Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Goose Camp Pt. 3: Streamlight & Migra on Gear, Innovation, and Camp Stories (Ep 751)

Transcript

Goose Camp Pt. 3: Streamlight & Migra on Gear, Innovation, and Camp Stories (Ep 751) · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:00
  VO: Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, doctor Mike Brazier. I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'm your host, doctor Jared Hemphith. And I'm your host, Matt Harrison. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, the only podcast about all things waterfowl. From hunting insights to science based discussions about ducks, geese, and issues affecting waterfowl and wetlands conservation in North America. The DU podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails.
• 0:44
  Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.
• 0:56
  Matt Harrison: Alright.
• 1:07
  Jimbo Robinson: Welcome back Quit yelling. To another episode of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. I am your host today, Jimbo Robinson, alongside cohost of today's show,
• 1:20
  love doing that, don't you?
• 1:22
  Do you like the interest? And beside us The one and only. Second year man at Snow Goose Camp. One of only two people that came back on second year, mister Will Taylor from Streamlight. Will, has the second year been as good as the first?
• 1:38
  Will Taylor: It's been good. Yeah. For sure. Glad glad to be back. Appreciate y'all having me.
• 1:42
  Jimbo Robinson: We had to sleep in today.
• 1:43
  Will Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. It's always good to sleep in and and shoot geese. Good combo.
• 1:48
  Matt Harrison: So this is your second year, so you're pretty much a vet now.
• 1:51
  Will Taylor: I don't know if I don't know if I get that far. Yeah. I will. You're veteran. Take it.
• 1:55
  If you say so, I'll take it.
• 1:56
  Matt Harrison: You're a veteran. So Will is with Streamlight. Yes, sir. Got a lot of cool things going on. Just had shot show, big show for y'all.
• 2:05
  You said that is y'all Super Bowl.
• 2:07
  Will Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much, man.
• 2:08
  Matt Harrison: Was that a crazy week or what?
• 2:10
  Will Taylor: Man, it it always is. It's always exciting to be out there and launch our new products and see everybody to see what the industry's got going on, be be around our customers, get to meet with everybody, and, you know, just kinda kinda kick the year off to get off to a hot start.
• 2:23
  Matt Harrison: Did y'all release anything new this year at SHOT?
• 2:26
  Will Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. We got some new weapon lights. We got some new new IR rifle weapon lights, new new addition to the Wedge line on the Wedge SL, so new new kinda EDC pocket light. Yeah.
• 2:42
  A lot of a lot of movement towards the dual fuel battery options, so rechargeable or one twenty threes or double a's, whatever it may be. And also a pretty heavy focus on Candela, so Yeah. Light down range. That's cool.
• 2:59
  Matt Harrison: Yep. How so how long have you been with Streamlight?
• 3:01
  Will Taylor: So coming up on five years now Wow. Direct. So I've I was a manufacturer's rep for them, I guess, about seven years before that. So been been sell been working with Streamlight for about twelve years and Direct almost five.
• 3:14
  Matt Harrison: That's awesome.
• 3:15
  Jimbo Robinson: So one of the greatest Streamlight stories that I love to retell, and we're gonna totally botch you the story, but we're gonna tell it anyway. Botcher it? Butcher, botcher. Jeremy Smith burned a pair of waiters one time With the Streamline. With the Streamline.
• 3:32
  It's got some power. So the story goes, he had it on, took it off, put it in his pocket, I think.
• 3:40
  Will Taylor: I don't remember where he put it. He he it was the Protac two point o headlamp, which is our which is our Ducks Unlimited partner, you know, corporate partner co branded product. But he so I guess he took it off and put it on his leg and he put it for, you know
• 3:57
  Jimbo Robinson: Face down.
• 3:57
  Will Taylor: Lens down, didn't turn it off. And, yeah, he said he started Smelling. Seeing smoke and smelling something.
• 4:04
  Matt Harrison: Where's this smoke coming from?
• 4:06
  Will Taylor: Yeah. His his his waiter's about to catch on fire. Fire.
• 4:09
  Jimbo Robinson: It was he told that story last year and it was great. That's hilarious. Because we all I mean, we walked out as a group with our stream lights on, and and we lit up the whole field. It was awesome. You could see everything.
• 4:21
  Yeah.
• 4:23
  Matt Harrison: Yeah. That's awesome.
• 4:24
  Jimbo Robinson: Nine dudes with the Ducks Unlimited Streamlight headlamps on is is a powerful combo.
• 4:30
  Matt Harrison: That's really cool. Now do y'all go to NWTF or Seaweed? Or
• 4:34
  Will Taylor: We we do not as a company
• 4:37
  Matt Harrison: Yeah.
• 4:37
  Will Taylor: Go there. We have representation there, though.
• 4:39
  Matt Harrison: Got you. So Wow. So SHOT Show is y'all's just absolute
• 4:46
  Will Taylor: Yeah. That's Super Bowl. That's our big one. And then for on my side, the sporting goods law enforcement division, NRA is also a big one too. Yeah.
• 4:54
  So we do we do a lot of stuff there typically with with DUX.
• 4:58
  Matt Harrison: Yeah. And DUX.
• 4:59
  Will Taylor: And did and I gotta give it to y'all. Yeah. That was that was nothing against any other shows. That was personally my favorite show that I went to last year. It was awesome.
• 5:07
  Jimbo Robinson: I think what was cool about what Will did there was, you know, you and I talked about on numerous podcasts with numerous people was families. Yeah. And Will had his whole family there.
• 5:17
  Matt Harrison: That's so cool.
• 5:17
  Jimbo Robinson: And the kids were underneath the tables, and I went by and gave him
• 5:20
  Matt Harrison: It's where it's
• 5:21
  supposed to be.
• 5:21
  Jimbo Robinson: Yeah. It's exactly right. They had the whole family there,
• 5:23
  Will Taylor: and it was just a cool Absolutely.
• 5:25
  Jimbo Robinson: Was awesome.
• 5:26
  Will Taylor: It it was awesome. I I really enjoyed that. That was like a I had a show before that too. That was like a ten day road trip for us. So yeah.
• 5:34
  I think we went through five different states. So it was a it was it
• 5:38
  Jimbo Robinson: was a
• 5:39
  Will Taylor: good time, man. They they thought it was great. All the all the duck calls, the booth across from us had a, I think, 10 old yellow lab puppy. So they were they were in heaven bothering them nonstop, but they were so gracious. I think it was I'll them a shout out.
• 5:53
  I think it was Chasing Migration Yeah. Was who that was. Wow. And, yeah, they were they were super. Gave us hoodies to use as pillows when they need to take a nap under the table at the booth.
• 6:02
  So Wow. Yeah. It was it was a great show. Very, very family oriented.
• 6:05
  Matt Harrison: To earn a friend and give a free hoodie and let you play with a
• 6:09
  Jimbo Robinson: yellow lab. Right. No doubt. Right.
• 6:11
  Matt Harrison: That's awesome. I'm excited this year for DUX too because, I mean, I think I mean, it was incredible last year, but I think it's gonna be I don't wanna put no just major expectations on it, but I think it's gonna be absolutely incredible this year.
• 6:24
  Jimbo Robinson: A great partner and sponsor of that event. And, you know, it's it's fun back at Snow Goose Camp. I didn't know Will last year, but I had a headlamp that that Jeremy had given me from them and and used it all year, and we we talked about it. And and just getting to learn about the lights in the way that, you know, it's not just the headlamp. Right?
• 6:46
  They have so many things and so many different products. And and and Will was we were sitting down there in the bunkhouse, and I remember, and and Will just sit there telling us about everything that they do. And I was just like, you don't realize the magnitude of some of these companies. And and to be a a partner on the Ducks Unlimited and to look at them and and to see them in every different thing just to be a small part of it's a huge deal for us at Ducks Unlimited. And, Will, I know that that you're trying to grow that line and and grow into more things, and and we're excited to see what y'all have to come.
• 7:19
  Will Taylor: Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think we've think we got some stuff in the works, and we're just super just thankful to to be able to work with y'all and and be a corporate partner. Appreciate appreciate everything y'all y'all do for us.
• 7:31
  But, you know, like like you said, yeah, we look. I think one of the coolest things about the DU Expo was the market crossover for us. We we we have, you know, several different divisions, you know, sporting goods, law enforcement, automotive, industrial, fire, federal, military, and then, you know, even our international side. And it I talked to people from all of those divisions that, you know, pulled out that were there because of, you know, being DU members, at DU Expo, and pulled out a Stylus Pro or a Microstream or a Wedge XT. Like, oh, man.
• 8:04
  I carry this all the time. It was just super cool to see all of those markets converge at the DU Expo. I I thought that was really
• 8:12
  Jimbo Robinson: Well, if you
• 8:12
  Matt Harrison: really think about it too, you know, every duck hunter either owns a pistol or has a flashlight. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's all the crossovers that on that aspect too is, like, you know, on all the different guns they shoot. I mean Right. Waterfowl hunters, they're gonna have a rifle.
• 8:29
  They're gonna own a pistol. You know? And military, I don't feel like as much so have as, you know, many waterfowl guns. But a duck hunter man, you know, just about everyone of them totes one in their truck or you know?
• 8:41
  Jimbo Robinson: And Well, you can't have one headlight. No. You can't have one you gotta have a handheld. You gotta have the headlamp. You gotta have and and it was funny because Will and Luke went on a on a run last year sitting in the blind.
• 8:53
  I remember this conversation about about how they had contracts with some canine units on their dog kennels. And they start sharing names back and forth on the police side, and that was really cool because you you would have never put Streamlight and Gunner and Police together in that crossover.
• 9:13
  Will Taylor: Yeah. And so it
• 9:14
  Jimbo Robinson: was really cool to hear two industry guys in the waterfowl world talking about a whole another industry Yeah. In our, you know, police and and law enforcement and how they have connections in that industry and the same thing, and that was awesome. That is cool.
• 9:28
  Will Taylor: And another thing on the waterfowl side, man, I mean, waterfowl spend a lot of time in the dark.
• 9:32
  Jimbo Robinson: Yep. Right? Hunters
• 9:34
  Matt Harrison: in general. In general. Right. 100%.
• 9:37
  Will Taylor: You're going in in the dark, you're coming out in the dark, you're setting up, you know, it's it's nice to have quality lighting product for sure.
• 9:45
  Matt Harrison: No doubt because just having your phone just don't cut it.
• 9:48
  Jimbo Robinson: No. Not anymore. Not anymore. No. But, yeah,
• 9:53
  Matt Harrison: I mean, every waterfowl hunter goes I mean, you gotta have a light. Truly. Like, I mean, whether you're throwing out duck decoys, setting out goose decoys, when you try to hold a phone and try to you know, it just it never works out. So you
• 10:05
  Jimbo Robinson: Will, what's a cool hunting story from this year? You got any really neat places you traveled or things you did this year was a little bit different? Just let me let
• 10:13
  Will Taylor: me think. Man, I didn't get I didn't
• 10:17
  Matt Harrison: No goose count.
• 10:18
  Will Taylor: I was
• 10:18
  Matt Harrison: just saying this is this is this is probably my And you know,
• 10:21
  Will Taylor: my favorite trip is so
• 10:22
  Jimbo Robinson: on far. His trips. Will fortunately went on the good team today this morning, a team. Here we go again. And we we laugh like you know, we've told this too.
• 10:34
  You know, we act like we killed, you know, a 100 and they killed zero. 11. We killed 11.
• 10:41
  Matt Harrison: That's a chip.
• 10:42
  Will Taylor: We earned them marathon. Man, we we earned those 11. We did. We we grinded it out and it was it was worth the wait.
• 10:49
  Jimbo Robinson: Was worth the was a good time.
• 10:50
  It was definitely worth the wait. But Wow. What where'd you go? Anything?
• 10:54
  Will Taylor: Man, I didn't I didn't do any any duck trips this year. I did a out of out of state deer trip
• 11:01
  Matt Harrison: Oh, that's fun.
• 11:02
  Will Taylor: To the to the Midwest. It was a it was a good time. Me and some buddies do a DIY boat trip up there every year and had a had my first encounter with the true booner, probably a 170 inch Oh my goodness. Plus deer, and it was the coolest, most heartbreaking experience. Oh, let's say.
• 11:18
  You said encounter.
• 11:19
  Matt Harrison: Yeah. The encounter.
• 11:20
  Will Taylor: I drew on him twice, never got to release an arrow. It was a thirty five minute ordeal. Anywhere from 23 to 40 yards. He just
• 11:29
  Matt Harrison: Never gave you a shot?
• 11:29
  Will Taylor: No. It's he just they got that sixth sense, man. He knew Someone. Came in for no. He he was he was fine.
• 11:35
  He just came in from the complete wrong direction, the the direction I didn't think it'd ever come from. Right? So maybe that's on me a little bit. But then, you know, he's about to walk through a shooting lane and stops, takes two steps up the ridge, then crosses the shooting lane. So it's just his legs.
• 11:51
  And then he's he actually went up. I grunted at him. He came back down. And for whatever reason, I don't even know if he heard me grunt. He just I heard him cough, which was a new experience.
• 12:02
  It sounded like a person coughing. I thought somebody was walking up on me. And he came he came back down. He's about to walk back into another shooting lane and he just stopped and bedded down for like fifteen minutes.
• 12:12
  Matt Harrison: Are you
• 12:13
  Will Taylor: serious? Wind swirled. Yeah. And the whole time, I'm just watching him. I can see, like, little little glimpse of him through, you know, through the brush and he's just laying down, scratching his self with his giant g twos and just hanging out.
• 12:24
  And then wind swirled, next thing I saw was him trot off over the ridge. No. Yeah. It was cool, man.
• 12:31
  Jimbo Robinson: Like That is the worst feeling. It it was not The trot away is awful.
• 12:35
  Matt Harrison: I mean, but he looked really good going away. Yeah. It was was cool to see.
• 12:40
  Will Taylor: I I can't complain too much, man. So I mean, just just to be to go out on public land and have that encounter and, you know, be able to spend time with my my friends in in the woods like that, man, that's enough for me. I'm good with that. I'd love to I'd love to sling an arrow at one and and get one on on the wall eventually. But, man
• 12:59
  Matt Harrison: Yeah.
• 13:00
  Will Taylor: Just I'll I'll take what I can get, man.
• 13:01
  Matt Harrison: I'm happy with that. That's awesome. Well, Will, thank you so much for taking some time to hop on the podcast. I hope your group gets them again tomorrow.
• 13:10
  Jimbo Robinson: In our group. Oh, okay. Okay. So we're together tomorrow.
• 13:13
  Matt Harrison: We're together. Same team tomorrow. With him.
• 13:15
  Will Taylor: There we go.
• 13:15
  Matt Harrison: Hope we get out of it. Will, thank you so much. Thank y'all for everything that y'all do for as far as Streamlight goes.
• 13:21
  Will Taylor: So Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate appreciate you having me, and really appreciate everything y'all do for us as well.
• 13:26
  Jimbo Robinson: See you
• 13:27
  Matt Harrison: at DUX. Yeah.
• 13:28
  Will Taylor: Yeah. We'll be
• 13:28
  Jimbo Robinson: here next place. DUX, July 31, August 2.
• 13:32
  Will Taylor: Yep. And back in Memphis. Right. Looking forward to it. Alright.
• 13:37
  Jimbo Robinson: We got one
• 13:38
  VO: Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast sponsored by Purina Pro Plan and Bird Dog Whiskey. After these messages.
• 14:02
  Jimbo Robinson: Am I intro to this one too?
• 14:04
  Drew Macintosh: Dude, you have a strong voice for this stuff.
• 14:06
  Matt Harrison: He does. He has a he has a face for radio too.
• 14:09
  Drew Macintosh: He does. Legend. As Q tip would say, legend.
• 14:12
  Jimbo Robinson: Welcome back to another episode Session. Session of the Ducks Unlimited podcast. We are at Goose Camp, and it's been so cool to talk to a lot of the people that have come this year's Goose Camp. But you know what makes a Goose Camp extra special?
• 14:29
  Matt Harrison: Good food.
• 14:30
  Jimbo Robinson: And what you need a lot of? Good food is one. Yes. But you know what you need a lot of it? It snow goose camp.
• 14:36
  Shale mo. Alright. So Gentle. Hold on.
• 14:39
  Drew Macintosh: And stories and good stories. Oh, wrong one. Hold on. No. Which one is it?
• 14:51
  There it is. No.
• 14:55
  Matt Harrison: Changed.
• 14:57
  Jimbo Robinson: Know they changed. I had birds in my ears earlier, the birds.
• 14:59
  Matt Harrison: It was supposed to go.
• 15:01
  Jimbo Robinson: We we have, normally, our world famous audio engineers helping us out with this, mister Chris Isaac, but he's not here. He sent us with the the traveling unit, which has been fun. But
• 15:11
  Matt Harrison: We're we're not there.
• 15:12
  Jimbo Robinson: Year's snow goose camp, the ammo was brought to us by Migra. And we got our man, Drew McIntosh, on the couch, open a drink. Only. Having fun.
• 15:23
  Drew Macintosh: Having fun. It's been awesome. There are so many great people here. So it's an honor to be here with you guys.
• 15:28
  Jimbo Robinson: So Migra did something really cool. So this morning, we're sitting in the blind, and we we rolled 11 deep in ours. And we've done that before, and so when I go 11 deep, I sit on a bucket, and it's a swirly bucket. It has a little spinning, you know, top dove hunting stool. Some of my boys sit to my right, and they they just hand me shells because I don't have boxes.
• 15:49
  Yeah. I don't have anything around me. Hands me a shell and it says, two thousand twenty six corporate hunt, Ducks Unlimited on it, on the side of the shell, and I we just started talking about it. And and Migra made these special shells, did the imprinting. We're gonna do some other cool stuff for our events this year with custom boxes, custom we can't tell all that.
• 16:11
  Never mind. Just kidding. We're gonna do some really cool stuff. Now the pressure's on. The pressure's on now.
• 16:16
  Drew Macintosh: Now we gotta do it. Gotta do it now. Gotta do it.
• 16:19
  Jimbo Robinson: Can't back out now. But really cool story. Brett Baker, new national director, event fundraising calls a couple weeks ago, and he's like, man, I'm at this migrant hunt. Got some awesome ideas for our event system. They want to give you know?
• 16:35
  And and RDs do this all the time. They have ammo at events, whether they they do it as a case. They sell boxes for a chance to win a gun. Like, a lot of cool things that we do inside our event system. And Mike is like, hey.
• 16:48
  We wanna customize everything. Let's do it. Anything we can do. Right? There's obviously certain things that that they have to watch out for, and so it was a last minute deal.
• 16:57
  Like, hey. Bring them to snuggles camp. Like, it'd be a great time.
• 17:00
  Drew Macintosh: It was last minute. It's awesome.
• 17:02
  Matt Harrison: That's how
• 17:02
  Drew Macintosh: but that's that's how many great things happen. Absolutely. Exactly.
• 17:05
  Jimbo Robinson: So they make plans. They come, and and we've had a blast. I got I got the opportunity to hunt with John and Drew today. And, actually, Drew sat right next to us on our end, and we found out the man loves candy. Okay.
• 17:19
  Loves candy. I'm surprised
• 17:20
  Matt Harrison: with as big as his arms are.
• 17:22
  Jimbo Robinson: I know. John is. What is
• 17:23
  Matt Harrison: that the trick to being jacked?
• 17:25
  Drew Macintosh: Sugar diet, man.
• 17:27
  Matt Harrison: Sugar diet. Yes. Protein and sugar. We're not gonna talk about the kind
• 17:31
  Jimbo Robinson: of Skittles that they bought him, but they were Sour. Tropical.
• 17:35
  Drew Macintosh: I didn't get to choose it. I just said, just bring me back some surprises. And they brought Baker brought us back some surprises.
• 17:41
  Jimbo Robinson: So you brought tropical skittles and and starburst.
• 17:45
  Matt Harrison: So that's the trick to being Jack.
• 17:47
  Drew Macintosh: Man, I don't know. Genetics. Genetics. Genetics. It's genetics.
• 17:51
  Jimbo Robinson: Okay.
• 17:51
  Drew Macintosh: I think it is.
• 17:51
  Matt Harrison: I believe.
• 17:52
  Drew Macintosh: Well, thank you for that.
• 17:53
  Jimbo Robinson: I work hard. So let's talk let's talk a little bit, Maigre, man. Like, what is it's well, first off, I got a question. So I was here a couple weeks ago in Stuttgart, and there was, a Maigre party. Did you juggle on, like, a duck party tour this year?
• 18:10
  What was that?
• 18:11
  Drew Macintosh: So we have a a boat ramp tour, which we developed as a team, Q Tip, me, Wade, Mark, and a few others. And we just wanted to bring ammo to public boat ramps. You know, like, look, man. These nobody ever does this stuff. We wanna be out it's an outreach program to promote our shells in the toughest places to go hunt, which is what we think.
• 18:33
  Right? Public ground. But that's the we the team wanted to throw a party. I'm like I'm looking at budgets. I'm like, man, I don't wanna throw this thing.
• 18:41
  Like, you know? But it ends up being the most and I can't even make it. I've never made one. Wow. I've just never made one, but it's only been two years.
• 18:49
  But they threw one at it was in Stuttgart at the restaurant. Open Seasons. Open Seasons. And it's if if Wade and them all touch it, it's it's over. They everybody knows everything.
• 19:00
  So Great party.
• 19:02
  Jimbo Robinson: So the back the to talk about the back end of this, I have my son, my son's friends, and their dad, Jesse Brooks. And we're staying at this random lodge because our lodge was totally full. And so we stay at another lodge, and I walk in the door, and there's micro stuff everywhere. And I'm like, who are these guys?
• 19:25
  Drew Macintosh: There goes a net revenue right down.
• 19:26
  Jimbo Robinson: And a buddy of mine that I met earlier in the season, Austin Williams, is staying at the same camp that I was, and it's, you know, a guy that I know, mutual friend of ours. And Austin's coming in. He's like, hey, man. Why don't we let's all go to open season. I'm like, man, I cannot take my nine year old, his nine year old friend, and a 13 year old to a massive, you know, boat ramp tour party tonight.
• 19:46
  Austin's like, oh, it'll be fine. Let's tell him he's with the band. I'm like, you're not even playing tonight. But it was like, their social media guy, the guy that does a lot of y'all's filming, the like, the whole crew, so they all go, and then they come back, and I'm talking about how awesome it was. And then I go in there to eat last week when I was there, and there's still migrant stuff on the wall everywhere.
• 20:04
  And I'm like, man, I should've I should've gone. Man. But we did get you know, our our our senior flyaway vice president, Tom Jernigan, went kind of on behalf of DU and and and just to go and support this thing, he had a blast.
• 20:18
  Drew Macintosh: Well, Baker just called me up. He's like, hey, man. Y'all having a party? I said, yeah. I said, yeah.
• 20:24
  We're having a party. He's like, man, can I get some tickets? I was like, dude, just walk in and say your ducks are limping. We'd be alright. You know?
• 20:30
  I was like, but I got VIP just for y'all.
• 20:32
  Jimbo Robinson: Yeah. And we did. That's awesome. Baker sends me the message and it's like, hey. Can you send this to Tom?
• 20:39
  Tom gets in. It was awesome. But it was a cool thing is a lot of people went. Like, it was the talk of Stuttgart during that weekend was, are you going?
• 20:48
  Drew Macintosh: And and I have no idea. See, I don't hear about this stuff.
• 20:51
  Jimbo Robinson: It was. It was talk I'm in my
• 20:52
  Matt Harrison: own little world.
• 20:53
  Drew Macintosh: It might
• 20:53
  Jimbo Robinson: be In in Stuttgart, when I say Stuttgart, like, you have to take like, to me, I consider ourself here in Stuttgart. Right? This is Stuttgart plus 30.
• 21:01
  Drew Macintosh: Right? The surrounding areas.
• 21:04
  Jimbo Robinson: But in the duck world, it was the deal around here. And and I kind of I separate some of that, know, when I'm over here, when I got my kids. I separate some of that to make sure that it's not all about work. But it was a great big hit, huge hit here. And the girl that was waiting on us had a Migra boat ramp tour sweatshirt on the next time I was there eating in the restaurant and Gorilla marketing time.
• 21:27
  So it was it was a good deal.
• 21:28
  Drew Macintosh: Those are great people out there. The team put that whole thing together. That I had nothing to do with me except, yes. Let's let's do it. Checkmark approved.
• 21:36
  But it's great to hear, like, those things pay.
• 21:38
  Jimbo Robinson: That's what David does for us. Yeah. I come up with these bizarre ideas a lot of times, and he does the old yes checks.
• 21:45
  Drew Macintosh: And I usually come up with them, but they had this one. They they are great at this stuff. That's awesome. And it's cool. I think Walker Wilson and a few other guys showed up.
• 21:54
  I I looked at Instagram. I was like, man, I wanted to be there so bad. I have my daughter. I was like, I can't get down there.
• 21:58
  Jimbo Robinson: I mean, Austin Williams has a you know, he's got He's pretty big. Bunch of hits. He's got big hits. And he's up there playing as a fill in.
• 22:04
  Matt Harrison: Wow. You
• 22:04
  Jimbo Robinson: know? So
• 22:06
  Matt Harrison: great deal.
• 22:07
  Jimbo Robinson: But let's let's talk about Migra as a whole. Like, what what is what's big? What's new? What did we shoot today? Man, there's a
• 22:15
  Drew Macintosh: lot in every year something with Migra's new because ever changing, ever evolving. Yeah. That was a heck of a doorstep. Wow. He's on a mission.
• 22:23
  He's on a mission. And every year we try to make Migra better. We invest everything back in as much as we can and it is basically working on new WAD technology. We got new primer technology. We got a negative degree primer, NDP.
• 22:42
  It's like we literally had to go out and get a new, like, industrial freezer to go negative 40 degrees to test this
• 22:50
  Matt Harrison: Oh my goodness.
• 22:51
  Drew Macintosh: This primer, and it literally shot a thousand shells in negative 40 degrees for, like, forty eight hours or maybe seventy two. Yeah. So it's like a game changer for us.
• 23:00
  Will Taylor: A
• 23:01
  Matt Harrison: thousand. Yeah. That's unbelievable.
• 23:03
  Drew Macintosh: But you gotta test it like that in batches and stuff, you know, a case at a time. Yeah. You know, not just all at once, it's rough on you, but, yeah, we we got a lot of new technology, new powders we're working on, partnership with powder manufacture. I mean, everything that we do from the ground up will be is literally customized and that we make a batch every year just for our purchase orders and a little bit more for fill ins. And that's so everything you get every year, most of the time and our sell through is phenomenal.
• 23:32
  We we can't even, you know, we can't make enough, you know, every year. Yeah. It's just Is it all made in South Carolina? No. It's made in Tennessee, and then we do some contract manufacturing overseas as well.
• 23:46
  But it's per our standards and exactly what we do in Tennessee, except we have different machinery. So we basically just design it took eighteen months, twenty four months to install with everything in total, and we got the new state of the art machines in country. So newest ones you can I mean, from the ground up, first ones ever to make a stacked load Wow? Which is designed around my patent that I developed and basis of the whole company, which is around the
• 24:17
  Jimbo Robinson: stack load. Yep. And and, I mean, let's just let's let's back up a little bit. So in we live in this industry. Right?
• 24:26
  We're all in this industry, and and I feel like Migra made a strong push five years ago. When was it? Five, six?
• 24:33
  Drew Macintosh: We were around for seven, but you probably didn't even see us till about five.
• 24:38
  Jimbo Robinson: Yep. So I feel like they came on five years ago. It was it was a store in Memphis, Oxbow, and that's the first place I ever saw it. Right? And so I, you know, and I saw the stacked load, and I was like, well, I gotta get a box.
• 24:50
  I grabbed the box and shot it. I was like, man, this is it. Then my buddy a couple of buddies shot it, and then we ended up getting I don't remember who where they came from, but I ended up buying, like, 10 cases from somebody, and we took them to North Dakota. And I was like, wow.
• 25:06
  Drew Macintosh: Great place to shoot them. Yeah. I mean, really, when it's sold.
• 25:09
  Jimbo Robinson: It was it was and it was it. But then it seems like there was it and I'm we're just talking of a book here. Right? It seemed like it kind of y'all were gonna change or or we were read whatever happened. It it it wasn't I wasn't seeing it as much until the last two years, now it's like right back off the ceiling.
• 25:30
  What was there a change in what was going on? Did y'all change anything big? Did y'all pull the reins back a little bit?
• 25:37
  Drew Macintosh: Man, every every year has been a change. Yeah. I've been there's never been two years where it's never been the same company. We grow over 45% about every year, which is insane for a company. I mean, people have changed.
• 25:53
  We've ramped up. I mean, we've quadrupled people, which not that many. I mean, it's not crazy. It seems like the marketing is on another level now. Marketing, obviously, when you're marketing your company improves, you know, by margin.
• 26:07
  You get the money, and you you dump it back into marketing and everything else you need. We got a true platform now with steady income. I mean, when you start up, man, you're we're a true start up. We're against giants. Right.
• 26:18
  I mean, multi $100,000,000 companies and up to billion dollar companies, at least. Publicly traded, you know, we're against monsters. That's truthfully what we're against. And everything is and the marketplace has basically consumed each other. Everybody's bought up between four or five majors.
• 26:38
  You know? That's it. That's our competition. So to explain that is to be in this is a miracle. Like, supply chain, that cadence with your manufacturing, it's a all year deal just for waterfowl just for waterfowl.
• 26:54
  But there every year's changed here. Every year. The people, you know, budgets, everything, even facilities. We've moved facilities three times. Oh, wow.
• 27:03
  Three times. We never for two years, we've never been in the same facility. Now we have the facility. We've dumped millions of dollars in the facility to now you're gonna see a commercial ammunition company come to life but bring customization to that. And we still do the same things that we used to do, just way better through the years we've learned, and now you're gonna see a scale that could keep up.
• 27:26
  Why white? Well, the first reason is I got them on discount because you can see every single flaw with a white shell. You can see everything. So you have to literally make a shell perfect. You can't have a mark on it.
• 27:41
  You can't you you get what I'm saying? You can't have flakes out of it's everything's gotta be perfect. So you can see every flaw. It's also a negative and a positive. But it was a discount, but it was just kind of our branding from beginning was people were calling it white lightning, but that's what people called it because they had to have more of it.
• 28:00
  And it ended up being like our you know, I knew that we had to have a consistency about the brand, which was the white. And nobody had white, and I wanted to own white. And then you put black print on it,
• 28:12
  Will Taylor: and it just pops.
• 28:13
  Jimbo Robinson: Oh, yeah. You know? And you
• 28:15
  Drew Macintosh: can find them to clean up. Some people and this is the craziest thing I ever heard. And people are like, man, I love those shells, but I do not. Man, you shoot a few box up there everywhere, they start flaring birds. You know?
• 28:27
  I'm like, you know, okay. Alright. Well, there's blue shells, there's red shell red's blood. Do you do you do they flare on blood or red I mean, it's the funniest so I literally asked this. Alright.
• 28:40
  You shoot a lot of ducks? You know, somebody goes, man, I don't like that white color, but I'm like, but do you shoot a lot of ducks? Yes, dude. I'm I hammer them. I said, okay.
• 28:48
  Well, you ever see like white feathers all over the water after you shoot all these ducks? And like, yeah. I said, well, you got white shells and white feathers. It kinda Blends in. It blends in.
• 28:59
  I mean and if you can see those white shells in the water, you ought to If they're flaring on that, you ought to be shooting them already.
• 29:05
  Jimbo Robinson: Hey. White shells have been great the last two weeks because I swear we've been living in snow and ice.
• 29:11
  Drew Macintosh: Yeah. That's that is true. It blends right in now.
• 29:14
  Jimbo Robinson: When you're when you're from where we are, a good snow day is awesome. I've got a six and a nine year old at home. Not a ice day, though. They love to play in snow. But after the fourteenth day, I You
• 29:26
  Drew Macintosh: gave me
• 29:27
  Matt Harrison: after the first day.
• 29:28
  Jimbo Robinson: My respect and negativity towards people in the North have just changed. I'm like, to to to go out like, somebody told a story today that there I think it was Jeremy who was saying that a lady that works at DU, they used to live in Michigan, and the husband would go out every morning at 5AM and clean their driveway so they could sleep at six shows. I'm like, no.
• 29:50
  Drew Macintosh: It was a negative 11 in, like, Minnesota the other week for, like, six, seven. I mean, this is Negative negative 11.
• 29:57
  Matt Harrison: Yeah. I mean, Jimbo were supposed to be in The Bronx.
• 29:59
  Drew Macintosh: That up. That's just what somebody told me. I'm just saying.
• 30:01
  Matt Harrison: Last weekend, me and Jimbo were scheduled to go to Nebraska to hunt, and it it I think the real feel ended up being, like, negative 10 or 15 or something.
• 30:11
  Jimbo Robinson: No. No.
• 30:12
  Drew Macintosh: I don't know. That's just rough.
• 30:14
  Jimbo Robinson: That's rough.
• 30:15
  Matt Harrison: That that's brutal.
• 30:16
  Jimbo Robinson: So people make fun of me all the time. If you ever you know, one of my all of the guys at hunt with me either come here and hunt with me or in front of me every time they know that, man, I am the glove man. You do have gloves. Dude, I've got four pairs.
• 30:29
  Drew Macintosh: Passing out gloves this morning.
• 30:31
  Jimbo Robinson: I was. That's awesome. I have my hands are my hands stay cold. Really? Like, it's just some like, I don't get cold.
• 30:39
  My feet don't get cold. My I mean, a little bit. My but nothing gets cold. My face never gets cold. My hands freeze.
• 30:46
  If it's 40 degrees outside, my hands are cold.
• 30:48
  Matt Harrison: Really?
• 30:48
  Jimbo Robinson: And so I always have gloves. And to think about negative 10, I'd probably have
• 30:53
  Drew Macintosh: to wear two pairs. That's insane. Three.
• 30:55
  Jimbo Robinson: I may I mean, it but it's funny because to think about how many times I've worn gloves in the last fourteen days outside to just walk to my car my kids make fun of me because I wear my gloves to my car. I put them on the console. I wear them out back to go inside. If I'm doing anything outside, got gloves on. This is I'm I'm I'm done.
• 31:16
  I'm done with the cold. The cold needs
• 31:18
  Matt Harrison: to go away. I'm about ready to chase
• 31:19
  Jimbo Robinson: snow. But that's funny because white you think about how people hunt snow. You know, like, I think sometimes our mindsets Mhmm. A lot of people hunt in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and we shoot a lot there's a lot of birds killed here, but it's three states out of this whole country. There's guys that hunt snow every day.
• 31:36
  That's right. Hunt Canada's. They're hunting Canada in snow like Montana. The white shell thing, the shell color thing I mean, I got to hunt in Tennessee the last three days of the season, and the blood thing is what's funny. And there, there were three guys shooting yellow, three guys shooting red.
• 31:54
  The front of the blind was solid snow. Right? It was peppered with red shells, not a bird flare. They were actually landing closer to the shells than they were the blind. It doesn't matter.
• 32:03
  Drew Macintosh: It don't matter.
• 32:04
  Jimbo Robinson: I mean and and what's funny is you always know you're hunting with a knee booter. Knee booters are new hunters. You always know when they say, I think we need to pick up those shells. It's like, they don't know. Have you ever picked up shells during a hunt?
• 32:16
  Not during. No. If they can see the shells, it's time to say, take them, boys.
• 32:21
  Drew Macintosh: Yeah. That's what I'm saying. That's the whole point is
• 32:23
  Jimbo Robinson: But I I think the white has always been a unique and an awesome touch because I like black and white. Same. I like white cups, black writing. It's just white and black is very clean. Well, that's like I said, there's
• 32:36
  Drew Macintosh: a negative and positive to it. You see every flaw Yeah. But it looks so good, you know, looks so but it also keeps us in check. It's easiest spot of any any type of anything wrong with it, and so that helps. We have sensors and video and all that stuff.
• 32:49
  I mean, we have high-tech machinery. So
• 32:52
  Jimbo Robinson: So besides this new cool event thing we're gonna have going on soon that we can't tell the whole world about, but they'll be able to find some cool stuff at events at some point either late this spring or early in the fall. What's new with Miger?
• 33:06
  Drew Macintosh: Out of ducks, like, the newest thing we just dropped at February 1, which is a new hybrid Miger hybrid load.
• 33:11
  Jimbo Robinson: Did we shoot some of that today?
• 33:13
  Drew Macintosh: You did not. Because it's just it's just for turkey because it's got lead
• 33:16
  Jimbo Robinson: in it.
• 33:16
  Drew Macintosh: And Oh,
• 33:17
  Jimbo Robinson: what? Well, we may have. Yeah. I may need some
• 33:19
  Drew Macintosh: of that. But y'all shot a one three, probably the most undervalued load we have, but it I love a one three. Yeah. It's perfect for some. Some people don't punch.
• 33:31
  It's great mass and great density. It's, you know, in between our two four and two b b stack. And I love a one three. I'll shoot it in timber. I'll shoot it I'll shoot it everywhere.
• 33:43
  You can same two four has more density, you know, more pattern density, but it's I like one three because it has a little bit more mass to it. And on a windy day, it just carries more. And it's made really for what we're doing. Yeah. You know?
• 33:55
  But you can shoot miles within timber steel. I mean, it's it's perfect. That's awesome. It's undervalued in the marketplace. It really is.
• 34:03
  It's just like educate
• 34:04
  Matt Harrison: shoot one tomorrow.
• 34:05
  Drew Macintosh: I know. Me too. Didn't even get to fire my gun. And these are and this is a custom He
• 34:10
  Jimbo Robinson: didn't either. He went to lunch.
• 34:13
  Drew Macintosh: True. Baker was entertaining me. You know? He said, look, man. Let me take you out to lunch, do something special for you.
• 34:20
  You know? He did he paid for it. I mean, it
• 34:23
  Will Taylor: was Wow.
• 34:24
  Drew Macintosh: It was it was honorary.
• 34:25
  Matt Harrison: Can't beat that. Well, Drew, thank you so much, man, for hopping on. I've enjoyed it. Hopefully, tomorrow, we get after them a little bit and we're able to shoot at some geese.
• 34:36
  Drew Macintosh: We'll do it. I think they're running.
• 34:38
  Jimbo Robinson: And I'm excited to have Thank
• 34:39
  Drew Macintosh: you, guys.
• 34:39
  Jimbo Robinson: You know, Migra helping our events out, and and I am really looking forward to to some really cool stuff because you said customization earlier, and I think that's one of the things that makes our events fundraising team so cool is that we can do this customization. It can go to our events, not only is it gonna share the brand of Migra to across the country to all of our supporters that go to our events, but it's also it's we said it earlier with with another one of the partners that was here this weekend. What's really cool is that you guys think enough of Ducks Unlimited to wanna be a part of what we do, but what you don't understand is we appreciate what y'all do just as much because we're in the business of fundraising. That's right. Right?
• 35:17
  The fundraising dollars at what is what makes DU so unique. Our volunteers that are putting on these events across the country, but to have partners that wanna be a part of that, and that's their legacy with DU. And so, you know, to give us a slight discount on something that we could resell at an event to make money on, it it's money out of your pocket, but you also see the value in what DU can bring to a company like Migrant. And it it means the world to us. It means the world to our staff and our volunteers because it shows that you care about conservation.
• 35:50
  Well, it's an honor, first
• 35:52
  Drew Macintosh: of all. And this load, by the way, you can only get there. So that's another thing. We'll just drop that. You can only get whatever we're doing at your event.
• 36:00
  Hold on.
• 36:00
  Jimbo Robinson: Hold on. The rubber. There it was. I just wanted the applause, but no.
• 36:09
  Drew Macintosh: It it makes it even better. I've always loved Ducks Unlimited. Everybody at this company, yeah, Migrant loves Ducks Unlimited. And to be even more involved, takes a whole another role. It's it's literally an honor, and it's an honor to see our brand with your brand.
• 36:24
  It really is, and thank you all for making that happen. It's a dream come true for me, truthfully, and a lot of people at the company. But just we've always loved you guys. It's always been a staple. It's one of the biggest waterfowl companies in it's really a company too, but it's a brand.
• 36:40
  It's one of the biggest ones. I mean, people don't hunt know what this is. But long story short, the people and you guys are just phenomenal. Like, y'all floored me. Just hospitality, who you guys are, the passion you guys have, just keep it up.
• 36:56
  Whatever y'all are doing, y'all got a great team. Y'all managing a great team as well. I'm very impressed. It's a big machine. Y'all are bigger than what people even know.
• 37:04
  Mhmm. And it's awesome to see. And what's cool is
• 37:06
  Jimbo Robinson: you now have friends wherever you go. Right? Yeah. So you got 91 RDs across the country. You got Matt.
• 37:14
  You got the guys that you meet here. And every time you go, it's a bond. Right? The bond is is waterfowl. The bond is conservation.
• 37:23
  And anytime you go somewhere, you know, you pick up the phone whether what state you're in, and and and you can go do something new. You can go hunt something new. You can meet a great friend. And and that's what's amazing about DU is no matter where you are, and I learned this when I was a regional director in Missouri, and I broke down. Mhmm.
• 37:40
  And I called my district chairman at the time in the area, and he said, hey. Call this guy. He's two minutes from you. And he was a volunteer, but he was a supporter. They go on the event every year, the guy owned a tow business, blah blah blah, towed me, helped me out.
• 37:53
  But no matter where you are in the country, you're connected to a DU person very close. Very close. And that this, and it's the bonds, relationship, and it's the passion that we all have that makes us so unique. And so to see and to hear you talk and and to say a dream, it's exactly what Addison Edmonds said with Gunnar sitting in that same seat. And and it's amazing to hear we're all very passionate because it's what we do for a living, and it's you know, you have to have that extra passion.
• 38:22
  But to hear you say it is is it just validates what we're doing is right, and and to have another company come on board and is just amazing. It's gonna be awesome. And I can't wait to to start teasing it and then dropping it at our events and and to have this unique exclusive thing that's only gonna be available to you, Vince, is gonna be special.
• 38:42
  Drew Macintosh: It it is. It's special to us. We take it very, very seriously. Like, very, very seriously. And it's a special moment for us and the company.
• 38:51
  You gotta remember, it took a lot of years Mhmm. For us to build up trust enough to have that opportunity, you know, and to have the team.
• 38:59
  Jimbo Robinson: How fast can we do this? When do we think we're gonna launch it? DUX or before? You know, let me get back to you on that. I don't wanna say it.
• 39:08
  I don't wanna say it.
• 39:09
  Drew Macintosh: I'm a lockjaw on that one. But, yes, as as fast as we can go, which we're probably one of the fastest that can maneuver this. And it's, I mean, it's from the brass up is what we're trying to do. I mean, total revamp, just customized from the ground up.
• 39:22
  Jimbo Robinson: It's cool. DUX has become a launching point for some of this stuff too.
• 39:27
  Drew Macintosh: It it would be a great place to do it, which is you know, you know what you're talking about, so I'm not worried about it.
• 39:33
  Jimbo Robinson: We'd love to do it. I think it's
• 39:35
  Drew Macintosh: it's cool. You know, it might go into some cases over there, Baker, that, you know, we have set aside.
• 39:42
  Jimbo Robinson: Be a good way to do it. No doubt. No doubt. Shoot. We may
• 39:46
  Will Taylor: have to
• 39:46
  Drew Macintosh: make some extras. To be continued.
• 39:48
  Jimbo Robinson: To be continued. And we are all excited, Migra, once again, be with us at DUX. But, this has been fun. This has been a great we love the buttons.
• 40:02
  Will Taylor: Cheering on that.
• 40:03
  Matt Harrison: Yeah. I gotta touch the buttons.
• 40:05
  Jimbo Robinson: We didn't we don't never get we never get to hit the buttons because normally his does So when he gave us the power of the buttons, last one, we total we hit every button on there, none of them were right.
• 40:14
  Drew Macintosh: No doubt. You gotta touch the RODECaster Pro. Yeah. That's that's what
• 40:18
  Jimbo Robinson: it says. I don't know what I'm talking about.
• 40:20
  Drew Macintosh: No. We don't either.
• 40:21
  Jimbo Robinson: We had to call him to figure out how to do it all.
• 40:23
  Matt Harrison: Drew, thank you seriously so much.
• 40:25
  Drew Macintosh: You guys.
• 40:25
  Matt Harrison: We can't thank y'all enough. Also, you all so much to our Ducks Unlimited podcast listeners. Thank y'all for tuning in to the Ducks Unlimited snow goose camp. Y'all take care,
• 40:36
  Jimbo Robinson: and god bless. Catch you on the next one.
• 40:41
  VO: Thank you for listening to the DU podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.
• 41:03
  Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show and visit ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, stay tuned to the Ducks.