Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / How a Dove Hunt Became a Family Reunion (Ep 820)
Transcript
- 0:01Barton Ramsey: Eventually, we're gonna be the dudes that are old walking around and making very little sense. Yeah. And like walking around like, can you believe how this is going? Oh. And our kids will be the ones in charge of running this stuff.
- 0:14John Dunaway: Going. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Our
- 0:17Barton Ramsey: freaking dads.
- 0:18Ryan Yarnell: You know?
- 0:20VO: You're tuned in to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. Conserving wetlands, restoring habitat, and working to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow, and forever. From field tested hunting insights to the biggest conservation wins across North America, this is your front row seat to wetlands conservation in action. The DU Podcast is proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're wrapping up a hunt with your best friend or kicking back with your crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment.
- 0:51Enjoy responsibly.
- 0:58Wade Shoemaker: Cool. Hey, folks. Welcome back to Ducks Unlimited Podcast. My name is Wade Shoemaker. I am your host.
- 1:03Wade Shoemaker:I'm joined by some pals. We're down in pod... South Padre Island, Texas for the Paloma Blanco. I think I said that right. You got it.
- 1:13John, Barton, Jarnel, guys, I want you to introduce yourselves. I wanna start with Jarnel because, John, when you're done, I want you to kinda give everybody the history of what's going on here. Oh, Jarnel.
- 1:23Ryan Yarnell: Ryan Jarnel, Turtle Box Audio. How y'all doing?
- 1:27Wade Shoemaker: Folks, just for reference, it's... It is 11PM, and we're on the last day. All tired. All had a good time. We've shot some birds.
- 1:35We've sweated a lot. And
- 1:37Ryan Yarnell: I mean, I'm laying in bed with Bart and Ramsey, just so everybody knows.
- 1:41Wade Shoemaker: We're in the only room that's free. It's the only way. We apologize. And they're probably gonna edit a lot of Jarnell's comments
- 1:48John Dunaway: out, so
- 1:48Wade Shoemaker: that's okay.
- 1:49Barton Ramsey: We've left room for Jesus.
- 1:50Wade Shoemaker: Yes. But, Barton, please please start your intro because Jerad Henson is about to ruin this entire thing.
- 1:55Barton Ramsey: I'm Barton Ramsey. I'm from Guntown, Mississippi. I have Southern Oak kennels and fortunate to be here at PB. Yeah. It's my fifth year.
- 2:07Fifth year and the ninth year. So I hate that I missed the first four, but
- 2:11John Dunaway: We got you here as quick as we could.
- 2:13Barton Ramsey: Yeah. And it's also crazy to think about five years of being here because I have all these stories from this trip, and then you have to start figuring out, like
- 2:24Wade Shoemaker: This specific one. Right.
- 2:25Barton Ramsey: This this every year, but then you have to try to figure out, like, what year was that one? When did that one happen?
- 2:30Wade Shoemaker: We were talking about been going to gym for four years.
- 2:32Barton Ramsey: Yeah. Four years in a row. Wade and I have gone to the gym and and the port right across the bridge.
- 2:38Wade Shoemaker: Shoreline barbell. Is that what it's called?
- 2:39Barton Ramsey: Shoreline barbell where they take weightlifting very seriously.
- 2:42John Dunaway: Yes.
- 2:43Barton Ramsey: And it's awesome.
- 2:44John Dunaway: You've done four years.
- 2:45Wade Shoemaker: I didn't know either, but he said '23 was the first one.
- 2:47Barton Ramsey: Yeah. Wade's done four. We've gone to the gym for years.
- 2:50John Dunaway: That I don't know that.
- 2:51Wade Shoemaker: I didn't either. I thought it was three.
- 2:52Barton Ramsey: We've also taken random people with us every time.
- 2:54Wade Shoemaker: Every single time, John. It's
- 2:56John Dunaway: like Wade and
- 2:56Ryan Yarnell: I always how many times have we gone to the gym, John?
- 3:00John Dunaway: Zero.
- 3:03Ryan Yarnell: I I wish him luck every time I see him go out the door.
- 3:05Barton Ramsey: You do.
- 3:06Wade Shoemaker: Yes. That was funny.
- 3:08John Dunaway: I've carried so many YETI coolers back and forth. I work out, six days loading up, getting here, run the thing, and then go home and unloading everything.
- 3:17Ryan Yarnell: So I loaded 12 bags of ice in the car today.
- 3:20John Dunaway: Yeah. That that doesn't count.
- 3:21Ryan Yarnell: I got my workout in.
- 3:24Barton Ramsey: It's your intro turn, John.
- 3:25Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. John, go for it, dude.
- 3:27John Dunaway: I'm John Dunaway. These guys are real duck hunters and work in the industry. I drive ships for a living, and I run this little dove hunt that people talk about, and it's kinda weird. It's called Paloma Blanco. It started out as a way to just take dove hunting in a place that I grew up hunting since I was 12 years old.
- 3:49I've been coming down here for twenty nine years. I just wanna add something different to it. Like, man, dove hunting is is... In South Texas is super cool to me because I grew up around it. I loved seeing people cooking in the field and hanging out with their dogs and all this.
- 4:04And I just thought, let's add one little. Let's cook something. Let's have a signature cocktail. Yeah. And then it was like, why don't we add just a couple more friends?
- 4:14And, oh, those friends happen to be Will Bradley at Turtle Box. It happened to be Kansas at pack meal. And we could put all our gear on the pack meal. We could listen to some music, and we just kept upping it up one one year at a time. We had no agenda.
- 4:29We weren't trying to achieve anything. We're still not trying to achieve anything. And now here we are nine years in, which is crazy. Next year will be a a decade of doing this.
- 4:40Wade Shoemaker: Dude, PBX.
- 4:41John Dunaway: Yeah. PBX. Yeah. Right? And we were joking about it tonight that it's no longer like an event that you talk about for me, that it's a...
- 4:53Like, it's a family reunion. Yeah. It's... Everybody has jobs and families and all this stuff going on. People have given up anniversaries and birthdays and their kids were doing stuff or whatever it may be.
- 5:09Right? And people just show up, which with all of our schedules and everything that goes on to it, in the rest of the year, I might get to see Barton once, twice from unlucky. Yarnell is the same kind of thing, and you're the exact same thing. It's like, it might cross paths, it might not. Yeah.
- 5:26But somehow, we found this little void where people don't have a ton of constraints yet. Right? If you're big game hunting and Yeah. Archery stuff, I I get it. Yeah.
- 5:37Yeah. We took him out of of the tag.
- 5:40Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Whatever. You're from Texarkana though. You shouldn't you should know better.
- 5:44Ryan Yarnell: Well, we don't
- 5:44John Dunaway: we didn't force him to come. And very clearly, I told him. It's like, man, go go chase this tag.
- 5:51Ryan Yarnell: I will after
- 5:52John Dunaway: this. But anyways, it's a family reunion. Right? We all get together before the season and accumulate the greatest gathering of my friends that happen to be friends with each other. And then even today Yeah.
- 6:04Being in the pool and listening to it was the two of y'all that had one degree of separation, and it's wild. So...
- 6:13Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Here we adding to this?
- 6:15Ryan Yarnell: No. I'm just thinking about how amazing this is, and this is for for year three for me of four years. I came one, had to miss one, caught two back to back.
- 6:25Barton Ramsey: I was just thinking about how immediately in this conversation, we've already pretty much designed all the merch for next year because someone said PBX.
- 6:34Wade Shoemaker: Yep. Yeah.
- 6:35John Dunaway: Good job. Congrats to Wade. Who does it, Wade?
- 6:37VO: Branding. Wade
- 6:38Ryan Yarnell: is Wade is a branding guy. Yeah. That's me. I lean on this guy right here. He's great on it.
- 6:43John Dunaway: You should.
- 6:44Barton Ramsey: Renard's gonna hear that, and it's the... Whatever drops with PBX. Yeah. Unreal. You know, twenty
- 6:50John Dunaway: four seven is crushing it with the hats, but I'm gonna say, we pitched the Dove hat idea and he's like, yeah. Nobody wants to buy that hat. Like, oh, cool. Can we do it for this?
- 6:59Wade Shoemaker: I'm glad you put him on blast.
- 7:01John Dunaway: Yeah. He's been called out. Because he didn't think it would work. Like, dude, you could put your logo on anything and they're gonna dig it because it's just... It's a vibe.
- 7:09You all selling something. And then did it, and then it went silly. Yeah. And so he allowed us
- 7:14Wade Shoemaker: Now it's every year.
- 7:15John Dunaway: Yeah. He allowed us that freedom to get to create these things together. So here we are. We all got basketball jerseys this year. Everybody signed them.
- 7:22Ryan Yarnell: The swag looks good this year. The swag looks good.
- 7:25Barton Ramsey: Yeah.
- 7:26John Dunaway: Yeah. It was a ton of fun.
- 7:27Wade Shoemaker: That is cool. Very good.
- 7:28Ryan Yarnell: What is that, Wade? Some Martha Spirit Co cup. I don't
- 7:32Wade Shoemaker: know what's in it, but I I scraped ice off of the ice maker in the free... Because we're out of ice.
- 7:37Ryan Yarnell: We're down.
- 7:37Wade Shoemaker: And I just grabbed what was
- 7:38Ryan Yarnell: on the
- 7:39Wade Shoemaker: thing. That's it. So it's kinda like a slush.
- 7:41John Dunaway: Yeah. We had 2,000 pounds of ice, and we crushed through it in two days. And As part notified Our boy Austin has a thousand pounds a day.
- 7:48Barton Ramsey: I did my math. Honestly, at the end of PB, math is hard. But You you you said, hey. In two days, we used 2,000 pounds of ice, and I did, like... I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that's that's about a thousand pounds
- 8:03Wade Shoemaker: a About... Just about...
- 8:04Ryan Yarnell: Mark did quick math. He did really quick math. That's a thousand pounds a day. It's an
- 8:08Barton Ramsey: average age. Fingers or toes. Yeah.
- 8:12John Dunaway: And it's status quo seems to go with PB.
- 8:15VO: Welcome to the Old Timer Minute, sponsored by Old Timer Knives.
- 8:20Wade Shoemaker: Family tradition. Well, that's easy because we really... In the hunting space, we only have one and never had... And I was so stoked when this sort of happened. 2012, we built a duck camp on a lake in Louisiana, and I showed up.
- 8:31And it was two by twelves on the trailer and I beams on the ground, and we built that camp with the help of some other people over the course of a year or so. Show up, my off day was Monday. Since then, we built the Duck Blonde, and in 2014, we kinda had a piece together hunt with our... With, you know, some of our family. And then 2015 started the family hunt, and it's every opening Sunday.
- 8:50My dad, my papa, my uncle, my cousins, my best friend, my sons now. That's something that started in 2015. And last year, we did it for the tenth year in a row. And, man, I get butterflies talking about it because that's the only tradition we have as a family in the hunting space. Right?
- 9:06I hope that never ends. It's gonna evolve, obviously, because time is time and things happen. I hope my kids do that with their kids and so on and so forth.
- 9:15VO: Visit the oldtimer.com.
- 9:17John Dunaway: Everything seems to have to be a little bit more. So we, like, we look at the inventory on the beverages that are delivered, and every year, like, that shouldn't be humanly possible.
- 9:26Wade Shoemaker: Then then we run out, like, two hours before. Yeah.
- 9:29Barton Ramsey: Yeah. It's the first
- 9:30Ryan Yarnell: the first night, Friday, we walked in there, and I was like, the... We have Charlie McKenna here, one of our ambassador chefs at at Turtle Box and he walks in and he goes, there's 26 empty bottles in the windowsill that can't be possible. Was like, I'm sure there is a large cooler of something mixed somewhere. Please, Lord. It's bad.
- 9:51John Dunaway: Mean, when when the ice idea came up... Because... So last year, we got some ice, and we got a little bit of it just for day one, and we we cashed through it, and it was done. We had go pick up the rest of it. So this year when I was talking to Colin from YETI Yeah.
- 10:07Crane? He's... Yeah. Crane. He's a pro.
- 10:09Right? This is he does. He goes, man, twelve hundred pounds, I think, would be good. And yesterday, he goes, we actually had 2,000 pounds and it's gone.
- 10:19Barton Ramsey: Ice trailer, like it wasn't like we were wasting
- 10:21Ryan Yarnell: I mean, it was for real.
- 10:22John Dunaway: And it's not like what it normally is of 95 degrees. It's like 80, 85.
- 10:28Barton Ramsey: Well, let's talk about that for a second. Okay. Because I mentioned this to you when we were eating the the shrimp boil fantastic dinner.
- 10:36Ryan Yarnell: Those delicious.
- 10:37Barton Ramsey: Another great meal with PB. But we were talking about... I mean, gonna get made fun of because I say this, but I do... I wake up every day and check the weather.
- 10:48Ryan Yarnell: My grandfather
- 10:49John Dunaway: I know that's easy.
- 10:50Barton Ramsey: I know we all know the quote. Her grandfather's here. There's a quote there. But I do, and I'm like... I don't know.
- 10:58Everything I do is weather related, whether it's hunting or wakeboarding or whatever. So Sure. I get obsessed with the weather. And then this year, I've really just been convinced, like, it's I'm completely wasting my time because
- 11:12Wade Shoemaker: It does not matter.
- 11:13Barton Ramsey: Doesn't matter. But this weekend, we're going in, and I'm I'm, like, texting you. You are moving ships around around the world. Well, now around the Houston Bay.
- 11:24John Dunaway: There you go. Yeah. Top me up.
- 11:27Barton Ramsey: That's in it. Well, we gotta explain that. Our friend Kent was in here, Navy Seal Kent, who asked John if he needed to top off, and John moved his microphone to his... His mouth to two inches from his mouth and said, Margarita. Margarita.
- 11:44Ryan Yarnell: Okay. You're So where did you hear was.
- 11:47Barton Ramsey: Okay. But the... Going into this weekend, I'm texting and I'm looking at the weather and everyone's kinda, you know, inside texting. And I'm talking to Connor Reddick and he's like, dude, you've seen the weather? And I was like, yeah.
- 11:57It doesn't look good. And realistically, going into this weekend for everything, every model you could check, it was a 100% chance
- 12:06Wade Shoemaker: Terrible.
- 12:06Barton Ramsey: Of three to 10 inches of rain every day. Every day.
- 12:10Ryan Yarnell: I mean, Renard called me. He was like, you got any updates from from John? I was like
- 12:14Wade Shoemaker: Just that we're going.
- 12:15Ryan Yarnell: No. Yeah. We're going.
- 12:16Barton Ramsey: Nothing was going. Was 0.0% worried about it. He was like, oh, we're just gonna have to just go with it. And we did. But one of the things that really backs up what you said about this being a family reunion is no one was like, well, I'm just not gonna go.
- 12:30Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Everybody... We're going.
- 12:31Barton Ramsey: No one was like, oh, I don't think we're gonna kill any doves. I'm not gonna go. Everyone was like, well, worst case scenario, we'll just sit around and hang out
- 12:39Ryan Yarnell: Kill some brains? My favorite people.
- 12:41Wade Shoemaker: And use all the ice a day. Yeah. Yeah.
- 12:43Barton Ramsey: I can imagine that much ice. And then everyone showed up. And then we had the best weather I can ever remember. I didn't get hot. Today?
- 12:52Yeah. It was...
- 12:53John Dunaway: Every every day. All the months. We're gonna about it in comparison to to 20 mile
- 12:58Barton Ramsey: an hour wind, cloudy in the eighties. Yeah. Compared to scorched No
- 13:04Ryan Yarnell: wind. Because
- 13:04Wade Shoemaker: it's terrible down here when it's hot.
- 13:06John Dunaway: Oh, yeah. It's... Tough.
- 13:08Barton Ramsey: I didn't even deal with mosquitoes this year. So anyway, shout out to everybody for showing up because that's cool.
- 13:14Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 13:14Barton Ramsey: And shout out to the good lord and the weather in general because we had... It was fantastic. It was as good as it could have been.
- 13:22John Dunaway: You know, like, in the early days, I would fret about having all the houses where I could keep at... I only booked as many people as I could put in houses right by it because I wanted to be able to control, hey. This is where we're hanging out. You go sleep there and come here. And I felt super responsible for everybody coming and go...
- 13:43Yeah. The margarita showed up.
- 13:45Ryan Yarnell: We're good. And I
- 13:47John Dunaway: felt super responsible. Then I finally was like, oh, these people were adults. Like, I don't have the babysit them. Right? We do it in September.
- 13:55And being all the way down here to there, generally outside of the hurricane zone, they don't normally get storms, but every once in a while. So we're actually on the ninth official PB, but it's been a ten year spread. We took one year off because of Harvey, and we got smoked out in Houston. We couldn't get down here. They were getting rained on.
- 14:14I remember that.
- 14:16Barton Ramsey: Is that 2017?
- 14:17Ryan Yarnell: It was 2017. It was. Because I was there. I came there. I flew from Montana to Houston.
- 14:23Wade Shoemaker: I was down
- 14:23Ryan Yarnell: I flew to Texas. I was in my
- 14:24Wade Shoemaker: boat riding around during hurricane Harvey.
- 14:26John Dunaway: Same. Yeah. I was.
- 14:27Barton Ramsey: Hold on. What did they call you guys?
- 14:29Ryan Yarnell: Was like Cajun Navy. Was like they called it. Was like can say
- 14:32Wade Shoemaker: I was like b string.
- 14:33Barton Ramsey: You kinda still are. Cajun Cajun... Cajun...
- 14:35Ryan Yarnell: Oh, you
- 14:36John Dunaway: were at the Cajun Navy? No.
- 14:37Barton Ramsey: Yeah. I'm Cajun from Louisiana in a duck boat rescuing people.
- 14:40Ryan Yarnell: I'm with Wade. We were flat bottom. Yeah. We were we were b team. We should've always taken this boat.
- 14:44Yeah. Mudboats Yeah. And
- 14:46Wade Shoemaker: Anyway, go ahead.
- 14:47Ryan Yarnell: We were
- 14:47John Dunaway: in Johnboats, like, going to neighborhoods. Yes. Take my kids to baseball practice. I literally have to go through the intersection where I took my buddy's boat and went through them, took people out of their house. It was nuts.
- 14:57But, anyways, here we are. So a ten year spread. We're nine years into it of actually hosting the event. And this year, of all the things. Right?
- 15:07I live outside of Houston. I'm constantly looking at hurricanes and weather and all that stuff that goes on from my own house and and livelihood. And you're like, oh, this is crazy. Nothing's going on. And a week out, like, there's a hurricane jumping from The Pacific into The US.
- 15:26Doing a yo yo. There is a cold front dropping south, and there's a low pressure system that's randomly out of nowhere building. You know, like, they made a movie out of this called perfect storm. This is absurd. Except this is called the trio storm.
- 15:39I sent an email, and I blasted everybody. It was a weather update. Like, hey. If you're concerned with the weather, I get it. Just send us an email.
- 15:47Let me know that you're not gonna come or whatever we need to do. And every day, we would look at the weather. Barton looked at it. Addison showed me looked at it? Yeah.
- 15:57Oh, yeah. Every morning. Everybody showed it to me. And I looked at it until the day I got here, and I finally said, it's not gonna do any good. It's either going to rain.
- 16:07It's gonna... We're gonna build Noah's Ark while we're all hanging out here
- 16:10Barton Ramsey: Yeah.
- 16:11John Dunaway: Or we're not. And they would show me these screenshots of it or they would like show me the actual footage, and it literally came off the gulf and it would just dissipate and it would spread around the pin in the field.
- 16:24Wade Shoemaker: It spread around it.
- 16:25Barton Ramsey: And this is day.
- 16:27Ryan Yarnell: It's crazy.
- 16:28John Dunaway: A 100% dry field. Yep. Saturday, a 100% dry field. All got to the tent, had dinner, did the raffle, and then it rained while we were in there. It rained all last night.
- 16:38We went... It rained so much that the pool overflowed into the actual yard of the house.
- 16:44Ryan Yarnell: Do it really? Yeah. Yes. I was like, I walked the other day. They were in it.
- 16:48I was like, what is the pool overflowing?
- 16:50Barton Ramsey: Our whole backyard's a pool.
- 16:51Wade Shoemaker: Yes. Yes. Yes. Over here? Yes.
- 16:55Barton Ramsey: That was bad.
- 16:55John Dunaway: I was
- 16:56Wade Shoemaker: trying to breaststroke through
- 16:57John Dunaway: it, but it was, like, just a
- 16:58Wade Shoemaker: It's like little free.
- 16:59Ryan Yarnell: Just deep on top of the concrete coming to the back door. I was like, okay. John was like, yeah. It's just all a pool now. So here we go.
- 17:06John Dunaway: And then we went out there, and the roads were dry, and it... Sunshine all day long. And unreal. Like, this We is drove home
- 17:14Ryan Yarnell: in the golf cart last night to our place at three in the morning, and it was a hurricane. I was like, Charlie and I was like, okay. I guess we're not hunting tomorrow. Mhmm. We get to the fields, dry as a bone.
- 17:26John Dunaway: Yeah. I thought we were done. When I listened to it last night, hitting the house
- 17:30Wade Shoemaker: It was rough.
- 17:31Ryan Yarnell: And we shot the most of today. That that
- 17:33Wade Shoemaker: we shot. Today... I think today was the nicest day of the weekend. Honestly.
- 17:36Ryan Yarnell: And the best hunting.
- 17:36Barton Ramsey: We had a good one today. We found that picture. Though, Addison and
- 17:39John Dunaway: I That that pigeonhole is went
- 17:41Barton Ramsey: and walked in the field yesterday, though, and smoked them.
- 17:44John Dunaway: But I will be honest. This was... I've been coming down here since I was 12 years old. I'm gonna let it out, though. I'm 41, and this is the worst hunting I've ever seen here.
- 17:55Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 17:55John Dunaway: To a point where I told somebody, was like, I'm the worst year it's ever been on a scale of zero to a 100. I would give this place a 70, the worst time I've ever been here. It's usually like a 90, maybe a 95. It's really good. It's historically good.
- 18:09I'd give it a 10.
- 18:10Wade Shoemaker: A 10 of a 100?
- 18:12John Dunaway: Yeah. It was so rough and still slow. It was slow. Yeah. Yeah.
- 18:17But then I'd go around and people managed to peck them out. It's like Yeah. Oh. Yeah. And and that's what this is.
- 18:23Right? We used to say that it a hunt trip and I get worked up when Bonnie would call and give me an update on what the birds were like and go, you know what? The guys actually don't care. No. We all hunt so much year in, year out, around the clock.
- 18:39This is what goes back to why it's a family reunion. People wanna get together. They wanna hang out with their buddies. It's like, yeah, if you're not hunting, where are going? If you can go to the best lodges, what does the best lodge do?
- 18:51They give you incredible food. They give you, comfortable accommodations. They don't let the birds out of a cage. Mm-mm. It is what it is, and we do that day in and day out throughout the season.
- 19:03So when you come here, it's no different. And if you have the personalities that enjoy being around each other, the hunting is the bonus. Yeah. Yeah. Everything else, I can't...
- 19:13So it's funny. I I see these other events and stuff and they have like photos of their spreads. We have never taken a a spread photo. Right? So when we had, like, 20 people, now we have a 125 people.
- 19:29Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 19:30John Dunaway: We have never taken
- 19:32Wade Shoemaker: a This... A whole group photo?
- 19:34John Dunaway: Never. And I... I've had people ask, like, do y'all actually shoot Doug down there?
- 19:39Ryan Yarnell: Dude, we've never
- 19:40John Dunaway: seen photos
- 19:41Ryan Yarnell: of him.
- 19:41John Dunaway: He go, no. We we actually don't. And it wasn't because we cared. It's because that's never... And to this day, it's not the purpose of it.
- 19:52Yeah. And nobody actually cares.
- 19:54Wade Shoemaker: I didn't even take my gun out Friday. Yeah. And then Saturday, I I barely did. And it's just... I don't know.
- 20:00You just... This is probably... And I think something to touch on was I think a lot of us would agree this is probably a lot of our favorite event of the year to come to and hang out. I And think it's because we don't care about... I mean, we love the hunting, but we don't care about it.
- 20:11Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. I can remember the fellowship for sure. I mean Yeah.
- 20:14Barton Ramsey: It's actually a problem because it's the first... We've all probably done... We've dabbled whether it's Thiel or big game or whatever, but likely... I mean, this is the first hunting trip of the season for me. And I...
- 20:28I've told several people this. I'm like, what really stinks is is the best one. Yeah. Dang it. Yeah.
- 20:35I started with this. Yeah. Downhill from here.
- 20:38Wade Shoemaker: Set the tone.
- 20:39Barton Ramsey: But it is like, I I don't even... Because the way my life is and, like, the way we kind of chapter everything off in seasons, I don't even wanna think about hunting or traveling to hunt or anything until I come here. I'm like, alright. I'm I'm in another mode. Then you come here and it's like the kick start.
- 20:58And it doesn't have to do with shooting birds. I think I shot five dove because that's my choice. Right?
- 21:04Ryan Yarnell: Was like,
- 21:05Barton Ramsey: oh, there's one cool. I made a shot, I'm gonna just play with dogs and hang out and watch my son. Miss dove, you know, all that. But it is like the, hey. I'm with the gang.
- 21:16We're getting geared up for the season. And, you leave here and like, alright. We're... This is like the the send off. Like, alright.
- 21:22We're all ready. It's time. Yeah.
- 21:24John Dunaway: Yeah. And I and I have a terrible problem internally. So this is my... Would be my twenty ninth year coming down here, and I have a single day I have never left without shooting my limit. Mhmm.
- 21:37I got in the field and running the event. My thing is round to the field, go to the middle. Since I was a kid, my dad would sit on the edge, him and his buddies. That's where they hunted. They were like, dove hunting is easy.
- 21:50Yeah. Why do you wanna go stand in the sun? Like, I just... They're flying there. It's super concentrated.
- 21:56I just wanna shoot them and get done with it. So I, like, I run out in the field. I've shot my limit every single day that I've ever hunted on that property until this year. And coming down here, I don't know if it was the weather or the recent trip to Mexico. I don't know.
- 22:12Something clicked this year and was like, I actually don't care. I just wanna run around. I wanna check-in with everybody. I wanna hang out more and do all this stuff. And I think I finished with, like, 25 total over the weekend.
- 22:27Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Didn't
- 22:28John Dunaway: matter. Yeah. No. And this is... For me, this is just a personal thing.
- 22:34I'm not gonna leave here tomorrow and feel any better if I had 45 dubs in the cooler or had the the 20 something that I shot. Yeah. I had the best stories with y'all. Yeah. I got to laugh.
- 22:49We went to the beach. You know? Like, we got in the riptide. We went to the field. We had great meals.
- 22:56We're just told we had a family reunion.
- 22:59Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. I think... But also something to note, and you didn't mention it, but got to watch. I wanna say that was your boy's first dove today. First two dove.
- 23:07And... But it was a twofer.
- 23:09John Dunaway: Yeah. How wild was that?
- 23:11Ryan Yarnell: He reminded me of that. I I told my son. I called Ira and I said, Hayden killed his first dove. And Hayden goes, my first two dove. Yes, sir.
- 23:21He was. That was
- 23:22Wade Shoemaker: awesome. Dude,
- 23:23John Dunaway: well, put him in the Can Am. We we ran around, and my wife was with with us and everything. And everybody we saw off with, you know, like, you run around this property. It's 400 acres, and you're, like, talking to people. And and he would lean out.
- 23:37He goes, hey. I shot two in one shot. I said, I've heard this seven times now. Like, you don't... Stop bragging.
- 23:46Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. But they've only heard it once when he tells them.
- 23:48John Dunaway: Yeah. Oh, yeah. For sure. And he was so pumped, and that is what this is. Right?
- 23:55Yeah. He will remember that ever.
- 23:57Wade Shoemaker: Your dad was with you too. It was you and your dad and your wife, like, and him. Yeah. Pulled up. He was there too.
- 24:03Yeah. That was cool. Three generations, which is awesome. And you... Y'all...
- 24:06You've been there since you were a kid too.
- 24:08John Dunaway: I started coming here when I was 12 years old. Yeah. He brought me with him and his buddies, and that's where this whole thing came about. I watched what they were doing. It wasn't it wasn't this.
- 24:17And I heard him telling somebody today, like, man, thanks so much for, like, giving him the idea to do this. He goes, uh-oh. This... We we... It was not this.
- 24:29And look.
- 24:31Ryan Yarnell: He said, oh. Yeah. Uh-oh. Yeah. It doesn't have anything to do with this idea.
- 24:35John Dunaway: Yeah. And when we started this, I had no idea. And last year, I had no idea. This is constantly bring my friends together. Let the friends bring good humans together.
- 24:47Even this. Right? Like... So this year, we had, five extra spots right at last minute, and Barton reached out. He had, two people he reached out about.
- 24:56Like, man, I trust your judgment in personalities. You've been here enough. You know what fits. And they showed up and they were total banger additions. Worked out.
- 25:07Barton Ramsey: Shout out to Brock and Wade. Yeah.
- 25:09Ryan Yarnell: My roommates. Roommates. Roomies.
- 25:13John Dunaway: And that's that's all this is.
- 25:14Barton Ramsey: Hope by the time we listen to this that you're okay.
- 25:17John Dunaway: Yeah. We
- 25:17Ryan Yarnell: Hope your hope your shoulder's doing
- 25:19Barton Ramsey: good way. Is okay. And next time
- 25:21Wade Shoemaker: That way, not me. Next other way.
- 25:22Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. Wade Hill.
- 25:23Barton Ramsey: Next time, just tap.
- 25:24Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Not Wade. Not this way. Wade's not rolling around on a linoleum floor with a basketball court. Not happening.
- 25:30Ryan Yarnell: I videoed and witnessed all that.
- 25:31Wade Shoemaker: Did you really?
- 25:32Barton Ramsey: Yeah. He's got
- 25:32Ryan Yarnell: Oh, yeah. I got it on video. I was like, well, wait. Don't don't do
- 25:35Barton Ramsey: this. But you do know. You're like, alright. What's the... And this is the kind of the encouragement because of all the things that I talk to people about, I have a lot of friends out around, like whether it's in the wakeboard world or wherever that that follow along with Southern Oak and the hunting space and all that.
- 25:53If if you had to say, hey, what's the number one thing that people are like, dude, I wanna do that? It's PB. Yeah. That's the number one thing. 100% of
- 26:02Ryan Yarnell: people are like,
- 26:03Barton Ramsey: bro, if I could do any trip that you do, it's Paloma Blanco. And I'm like, alright. Alright. That's cool. But I remember you talking about this, John, and I tried to tell everyone this.
- 26:13I'm like, hey. I don't know that I can get you to PB. Not everyone would fit in with this crew. Mm-mm. We probably would scare a lot of people.
- 26:24A lot of people will come here and listen to our
- 26:25John Dunaway: It's intimidating.
- 26:26Barton Ramsey: Conversations and be like, man, I think realities. Our Yeah. And, like, if you really participate in this, at this point, the CIA is probably tracking
- 26:39Ryan Yarnell: tracking our text right here.
- 26:40Barton Ramsey: Just be clear there. Yeah. You're getting the p p text right. Dude, the government's watching all that. But
- 26:46Wade Shoemaker: They're whiteboard.
- 26:47Barton Ramsey: But... Yeah. But I do tell everyone, I'm like, hey. You could also do this. I was talking to a guy named Arch who lives up in Enid, Oklahoma.
- 26:54He's friends with the Falco guys. He's a client. Super nice guy. We were talking about it. He was like, yeah.
- 26:58I'd love to do that, but I've also just been encouraging my friends. Like, there's a place they could go and somewhere in Texas, West Texas, where he's like, buddy's got this place got dove all over. And I'm like, we could get like 12, 15 of our best friends. And like, one of them is a barbecue guy and we could cook. And I'm like, that's it.
- 27:13Like, who are the 12 guys that you really want to hang out with? Go find somewhere. If it's dove season cool, if it's duck season cool, make it about food, fellowship, family, and then, yeah, we we also go hunt. Yeah. And man, you can replicate this stuff and make it doesn't have to be necessarily the social media, you know, all the stuff.
- 27:36But, like, I promise you the experience that you'll have if you just do that.
- 27:39John Dunaway: We... Yeah. We don't have a secret sauce. There is... And I try to tell people all the time.
- 27:44And for years, I would do that. I... I'd literally record myself and tell people, hey. We're probably not gonna let you get into this, but I want you to take the idea and go get your friends and do exactly what you're talking about. Yeah.
- 27:59Because we're not special. No. The property's not special.
- 28:03Ryan Yarnell: I mean, Michael Coughlin's pretty special. Well, that's true. Yeah.
- 28:06John Dunaway: I mean, look, there was my... Hold on. Identities.
- 28:09Barton Ramsey: Hold on. But let's tell people that part what you just said. We're hunting on a property that you could just drive down here in dailies.
- 28:18John Dunaway: You can come to Whitewing Fields anytime of the year, and you can hunt there whenever you want. On a dailies. And and... Yeah. On dailies.
- 28:26Barton Ramsey: Nothing's nothing's... It's cool. We're on the Mexico border. That part's cool. It's part the border wall.
- 28:31It's fun. So don't get me wrong. It's beautiful, but, like, anyone could just come hunt it. In fact, Friday, I was like, hey. There's some randos out here.
- 28:38Like, they're in my favorite spots, dude. Like, get them out.
- 28:42John Dunaway: Get off my points. So... Yeah. You you can literally rent the same house that we have. You can hunt at the same field that we hunt.
- 28:57VO: Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.
- 29:12John Dunaway: So what's different about it?
- 29:13Ryan Yarnell: What if somebody books this all out now and next year you're like, you can't get it?
- 29:17John Dunaway: Don't worry. I lock it down. Bonnie knows. Yeah. Yeah.
- 29:21Yeah.
- 29:21Ryan Yarnell: I wanna say something about the hunting you were talking about about the dove and whatnot. Obviously, I hardly ever shoot. I think last year was the first time I've ever shot a limit in a day. I shot five probably this weekend, and I shot a lot of shells today to kill extra three. But I get about 500 hugs every day in the field from a bunch of wonderful people that I love, and I somehow only get to see when we're here.
- 29:46Wade Shoemaker: He didn't take... The part he didn't tell you is he gives 600, but only about 500.
- 29:51John Dunaway: They're like, what is this?
- 29:53Ryan Yarnell: Well said. Well said. Who who is this guy? But, you know, it's
- 29:59John Dunaway: Women and children beware.
- 30:01Ryan Yarnell: Women and children. I mean, we... Your your child beat on us today.
- 30:05Wade Shoemaker: Boy, he whooped on us. We tried to hang him from the rafters, but he didn't stick.
- 30:08Ryan Yarnell: No. He wouldn't stay up there. And your dad was encouraging. He's like, yeah. Hang him up.
- 30:12That's a good grandfather. Let's go. That's how mine was.
- 30:14John Dunaway: Yeah.
- 30:16Ryan Yarnell: But, you know, obviously, we love your family, your kids. All of y'all were watching Barton's boy grow up and take thirds in the... Third in the worlds and and wakeboarding. And, I mean, it's just been a wonderful group of friends to watch their kids' families grow up, and we all get to connect here. And we're grateful enough we get to see each other a couple of times at least throughout the season, at least the four of us sitting here for sure.
- 30:39Yeah. And, you know, and that all started... A lot of that started right here in this in this area with this... With PB.
- 30:46John Dunaway: Yeah. I mean, look. We watched Noah. When Noah came here, like, I don't remember you ever talking about that he was wakeboarding. And he...
- 30:54I'm sure that he was at that time. Right? Mhmm. I went to Barton's house for a summer, and we juggled like, man. I was like, I wanna go to Camp Ramsey.
- 31:01Yeah. Playing on trampolines, and they're wakeboarding all summer and all all that kind of fun stuff, and he progressed. And I used to do it when I was in high school, college, and barking
- 31:11Barton Ramsey: Don't let him understudy you. John's actually a good wakeboarder, dude. He did, like, deal three first go behind my boat.
- 31:17Ryan Yarnell: You're probably like, what? The day... He's John also
- 31:19Barton Ramsey: showed up on my boat in Mississippi and, like, look, everybody says we look alike, and I do the John impersonations. And we have the mustache and tattoos that are kinda like... Our tattoos are flipped opposite on our bodies. I got my left arm. He's got his leg.
- 31:34It's like a whole thing. This bro shows up on my boat wearing the same swimsuit as me. Yeah. On purpose?
- 31:40Ryan Yarnell: No. We had
- 31:41Barton Ramsey: no idea, dude.
- 31:42John Dunaway: And I didn't even know until we took a photo on the back of the boat and then looked at it and was like, we're wearing the exact same trunks. And we've got no shirts on right, just trunks and tattoos. Like
- 31:54Barton Ramsey: Dang it.
- 31:54John Dunaway: Man, I could possibly convince my mom that that's me on the other side. Yeah.
- 31:59Barton Ramsey: Dude. But... Yeah. I mean... And I'll speak to that too because Noah, you know, he's 13.
- 32:06Been traveling with me since he was about Hayden's age, so like seven or eight. It's like, hey, let's let you start shooting a four ten and figuring the hunting thing out. I know, Wade, we've talked about kids in the field and like you getting your boys, you know, first ducks, that kind of stuff is super cool. You know? And Noah loves to shoot.
- 32:23And he's 13 now and I feel like I've I've done a good enough job. He's responsible enough that, like, I can give him his gun and his ammo and send him with any of my pals. Yeah. And I'm never like, oh, I'm worried Noah's gonna make a gun mistake. Or, like, we've we've drilled that part in.
- 32:39But what I really love is he knows all you guys.
- 32:42John Dunaway: Yeah. Right.
- 32:43Barton Ramsey: All of y'all. And he's treated here like one of the bros. He's 13.
- 32:49John Dunaway: Oh, yeah.
- 32:49Ryan Yarnell: I mean, bro, he text me. Yeah. He he text out. He's like, what's up, bro? I'm like,
- 32:55John Dunaway: what's up, Noah? You know? Like
- 32:56Barton Ramsey: Hey, man. Give me that ranger. Yeah.
- 32:58Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. Give me the purple. He is.
- 33:00John Dunaway: But he knows how to work that day. He does.
- 33:03Ryan Yarnell: Oh, he does. Hey, man.
- 33:04Wade Shoemaker: You want me hold on the podium?
- 33:05Barton Ramsey: Just go on the podium at Worlds, man. Give me that ranger.
- 33:07Wade Shoemaker: I could have been holding a ranger
- 33:08Ryan Yarnell: over that
- 33:09Barton Ramsey: guy. But, no, it's like he... This is his his group of dudes, men who, like, are responsible, responsible, which is kinda scary to say, for, like, pouring in his life. Right? And he sees everyone all around the whole duck season.
- 33:22And I I think he I think he would miss Christmas if it meant getting to come to PB. Yeah. Like, when he's thinking about what he's going to do next year, we've gone from homeschool to kind of hybrid to hybrid, but he can miss when he wants. He's thinking about public school next year and he's like, well, does that mean I have to miss PB? And like that's the thing.
- 33:42And it's like the... Because the community and even that for a 13 year old for you guys is so encouraging because I'm like, heck, I send him anywhere and know these guys are... They're treating him like a like a man with dignity even though he's a kid.
- 33:56VO: Oh, yeah.
- 33:56Barton Ramsey: And probably teaching him words. His mom wishes he didn't know. Oh, buddy. Buddy. Yeah.
- 34:01And making jokes. But at the same time, teaching him about life, and he's learning all these life lessons here. And we come home from PB, and he has a whole new level of respect for everyone here. And it's that part's cool because... And and, I mean, him upstairs playing, was it air hockey with With Hayden.
- 34:19Hayden's... He's like...
- 34:20John Dunaway: Hayden's seven.
- 34:21Barton Ramsey: He's seven. So he's six years younger. That's a lot when you're kids.
- 34:23John Dunaway: That's a huge spread.
- 34:24Barton Ramsey: But even there, it's like Noah's like, alright. We're gonna... I'm I'm a hang out with Hayden. I'm a play basketball with him in the pool. That's the next level of kid that's coming up.
- 34:32Ryan Yarnell: Yeah.
- 34:32Barton Ramsey: Yeah. And it's cool. I thought about today because your dad came up. I was eating some
- 34:36Wade Shoemaker: shrimp and Lots of shrimp. Oh, I'm hurting right now.
- 34:42Ryan Yarnell: Big time, buddy. Yeah.
- 34:43Barton Ramsey: But but dad came up and he said something, and to be honest, I tried to kinda interpret it, but
- 34:50John Dunaway: It didn't make sense. Yeah. I get it.
- 34:52Barton Ramsey: I don't
- 34:52Ryan Yarnell: know if it was Paul. Big daddy Paul.
- 34:54Barton Ramsey: Know if it was English or not. Spanish. He, like, had... He reached for something in the shrimp pile from behind me as I was reaching for it, and he apologized, and then he just said some words. And then he walks off and and your wife, Kim, was sitting next to me, she goes, sorry.
- 35:11It's John's dad. I was like, I know. And she was like, kinda rolled her eyes like he's... And I was like... And then the same time, Hayden and Noah over there are cleaning crab legs, just breaking them in half and getting meat out of them.
- 35:23And I'm like, alright. Eventually, we're gonna be the dudes that are old walking around and making very little sense. Yeah. And like walking around like, can you believe how this is going? And our kids will be the ones in charge of running this stuff.
- 35:39Wade Shoemaker: Going, oh.
- 35:40Barton Ramsey: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Our freaking dads.
- 35:44Ryan Yarnell: You know?
- 35:45John Dunaway: I always joke, but it's realistic. It's like, eventually, the, like, PB hype, which is wild that it even has a hype to it. Right? It's like, it'll die. And what's gonna be left?
- 35:58Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Oh, we will.
- 35:59John Dunaway: And and I walked into this room tonight, and I joked to y'all. Yeah. It's like next year's a ten year. It's gonna be y'all and your children. And Bart goes, so we're shrinking PD?
- 36:10Yeah.
- 36:12Ryan Yarnell: Well, look, man. You're you're like Darnell and his kid. Wade and his son.
- 36:16Barton Ramsey: Vibe, man. It's the... You know, it's... Don't get me wrong. I I do love everyone being here.
- 36:21It's super awesome. But
- 36:22John Dunaway: It... It's fun. But
- 36:23Barton Ramsey: That small core group of guys that can bring kids and
- 36:27John Dunaway: Guess we're like,
- 36:27Ryan Yarnell: we're gonna all have ours next year for sure.
- 36:29John Dunaway: Like, yesterday....
- 36:30Barton Ramsey: Kansas though
- 36:31John Dunaway: and this kid. I... Let's talk about
- 36:33Ryan Yarnell: that kid.
- 36:33Barton Ramsey: That's dope cute. That kid is awesome. He's grown up here. Yeah. Right?
- 36:39Oh, yeah. Every year....
- 36:40John Dunaway: Grown up here.
- 36:41Barton Ramsey: Well, what's crazy is five years ago, he was, like, a little younger than Noah, my son is now. Right. And very similar and respectful and talking to him. And then now, you tell... Like, he showed up this year and it's it's freaking rad.
- 36:54So
- 36:55Ryan Yarnell: He's a grown man.
- 36:56John Dunaway: Yeah. Is he 18 now? He's 17. 17. So this year, he showed up, drove himself.
- 37:02He's 17 years old. They're having family weekend at LSU for one of his sisters. He's got two sisters. So his
- 37:10Wade Shoemaker: dad's there.
- 37:10John Dunaway: So Kansas, Kansas' wife, Frankie, the two daughters, and Gunnison doesn't show up. And he tells him, he goes, hey. It's my birthday during PB. I wanna go to PB. Yeah.
- 37:24He said... And Kansas told him, you know, it's it's parents weekend. We're we're going to LSU to see your sister. And he said, yeah. But I...
- 37:30Do I have to
- 37:31Wade Shoemaker: go? Yeah. But it's parents weekend, not brother.
- 37:33Ryan Yarnell: Like, I'm gone. I'm not a parent. I'm going to PB.
- 37:36John Dunaway: So he sends him down here, and he has been here from the very beginning. Kansas showed up in the first year. Gunnison has never missed one. He came when he was seven years old. He turned 17 yesterday.
- 37:49Yeah. And we had the mariachi come in and sing him happy birthday in Spanish.
- 37:55Barton Ramsey: I got it on video.
- 37:55John Dunaway: And got it on video. And today, he walked over to me, and there was, like, five people at the field when I showed up. And he goes, man, thank you so much for doing that for me. Yeah. That That's wild.
- 38:06Barton Ramsey: But This is about you. This is about dude. It's like you and your dad. Shout out to him too because not only has he been here all weekend, he has been here... This this is what is so meaningful to me.
- 38:18His dad is is... Has pack mule. So for those listening, the freaking best trailer hitch luggage rack you can have Period. Hands down. His dad has Pack Mule.
- 38:31He's brought his son along for the ride, building this brand, a part of this journey. I'm very much in that boat. Right? I'm like, alright. Noah's coming.
- 38:41And every once in a while, it's like, You gotta represent Southern Oak Kennels like we're letting the dogs out. You know, whatever that looks like. Right? Sure. Kansas is awesome, but he didn't have to be here this weekend.
- 38:51His son represented the brand like Yeah. Their stuff was set up.
- 38:55John Dunaway: Did you see that?
- 38:55Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. Real. On real real.
- 38:57John Dunaway: Tailgate of that Ranger setup. Was. The Ranger setup. Perfectly. Yeah.
- 39:02So Like, he could've gone to any convention anywhere and set it up and go, this isn't a convention. There aren't people off the street showing up, but he gave him the responsibility to take care of it.
- 39:14Barton Ramsey: A 17 year old. A showed 17 year
- 39:17John Dunaway: up, and he took care of it, and he never missed a beat. No. He got out there, and he hunted,
- 39:21Ryan Yarnell: and he hung And
- 39:22Barton Ramsey: he had conversations and talks to you, like, that's a real man.
- 39:25Wade Shoemaker: Oh.
- 39:25Barton Ramsey: 17 years old yesterday, and he talked to me like...
- 39:28John Dunaway: You think he's like 25 years old?
- 39:29Barton Ramsey: Yeah. He's just Shout out to that family.
- 39:32John Dunaway: Yeah. For doing that.
- 39:32Ryan Yarnell: That's pride and himself and a hell of a raisin from his father and mother. Yeah.
- 39:37John Dunaway: Yeah. It truly is.
- 39:38Wade Shoemaker: It was good. Y'all got this significant birthday. You got this significant birthday too, the Mariachi band. And and I know he's 17, and he told me, like, he thank you for doing the thing. Like, he told you that.
- 39:49But when when it got done, I don't know if it was just, you know, eyes watering, but he he was wiping tears away. So, like, I think it got him in his gut, dude. Like, he got choked up, because I think it... I think this place probably means that much. Mhmm.
- 40:00You know?
- 40:01John Dunaway: Yeah. It's... You know, I started saying it, the family reunion thing, but I'm probably gonna roll with that because that's what I truly believe.
- 40:08Wade Shoemaker: And Yeah.
- 40:09John Dunaway: I feel like I'm part of their family because I watch his kid grow up. And then I watch Kansas watch my son and daughter grow up. And the same thing that happens here. We've got Noah showing for multiple years on a time, and we're watching him develop to really, oh, he's tolerant some of the grown adults that are here. Know?
- 40:28Barton Ramsey: Shout out Connor Reddick. Yeah. Yeah. They're Connor and Addison and Noah are walking through the field yesterday, and I was like, dang. Noah's taller
- 40:37John Dunaway: than both of the fools.
- 40:39Ryan Yarnell: So good. I mean, look. Ricky Nichols brought his dad and his two boys. Yeah. He did.
- 40:43John Dunaway: He did.
- 40:43Ryan Yarnell: I mean, how many kids were here this year and people that I've met here that, you know, and seeing their kids now coming and
- 40:50John Dunaway: You know, like like, coming down. Kim wasn't coming, and she asked us, what are you gonna do with Hayden? You know? Like, Harper and I have something going on. I can fly down later.
- 40:59I can bring Hayden. I was like, hey. My dad could take care of him. Disclaimer, my dad didn't watch him
- 41:05Ryan Yarnell: one bit. But Hayden hung with you.
- 41:08John Dunaway: And you know what happened? There were so many kids here. Didn't matter.
- 41:12Ryan Yarnell: Didn't matter.
- 41:13John Dunaway: He got with the other kids. Like, today, we rolled by. My buddy, Trip Webb, was here. Yeah. And his his son...
- 41:20And he goes, hey. Can I stop and just stay with them? Yeah. Like, oh, yeah. And he played with his son.
- 41:26And his son is three years younger than Hayden, and I watched him play with 15 year olds. I watched him play with five year olds. And this is the beauty is that these kids look, Wade, Barton, myself were close in age, but we've got some spreads. And it's no different. If you looked at kids and you put those ages, you'd be like, oh, well, they're not the same age.
- 41:51But it's weird when you become an adult, you can have these spreads and it's completely acceptable. Yeah. When you're kids, you think they all do the same age. And you watch them, like, have their own little reunion going on Yeah. Of hanging with each other.
- 42:04And it's so rad. I left Hayden for multiple hours on it. You can call me responsible if you want.
- 42:10Barton Ramsey: I wasn't gonna say anything. Yeah.
- 42:13Wade Shoemaker: Was like, here we go.
- 42:14John Dunaway: Here we go. I guess, look. Played in the pool. They were playing basketball. They were in the field.
- 42:19Ryan Yarnell: In the ocean. Oh, they had to say, where were. The riptide.
- 42:22Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Yeah.
- 42:22John Dunaway: And the riptide
- 42:23Barton Ramsey: is floating
- 42:23Ryan Yarnell: down the street. I was watching it very closely. Some... I do have to rip
- 42:27Barton Ramsey: some credit because he did come back, and he was like, are all the kids here? Yeah. He did look out. It's a big riptide, Todd,
- 42:34Ryan Yarnell: and I just I was stressing when
- 42:36Barton Ramsey: I left. Like so worried that one of our children got sucked out to see you. Just... I mean, I was like
- 42:42Ryan Yarnell: He was counting heads. I was with him. I was counting heads. That's that rap guy in me. Right?
- 42:46And I was counting heads. They're like, no. I saw I saw Hayden go with his dad. Noah went up, and I'm like, are we sure? Are we sure?
- 42:52Like like, you know, so I got back, and I had to double check. You know? I was like, I wanna make sure my kids are here. I need to go back and drown myself in the ocean if they're not because I'm gonna swim looking for them.
- 43:02Wade Shoemaker: Right. I think it's cool too, though. Like, you can leave them, but it's not even just you gotta leave them with a kid. Like, I think
- 43:07Ryan Yarnell: they're so comfortable with all
- 43:08Wade Shoemaker: the adults too. Oh. That... If they were like, hey. We're gonna go with you.
- 43:11Like, was your dad know you're coming, mate? Yeah. Okay. Well, come on. You know?
- 43:14And then it's like, we'll shoot you a text. Like, hey. They're coming with us.
- 43:16Ryan Yarnell: Also, Michael's son, Larkin.
- 43:19John Dunaway: Oh. I
- 43:20Ryan Yarnell: mean, the kids... I mean, he was gonna catch a giant catfish and just, you know
- 43:24Wade Shoemaker: Is that the one the one the cat daddy? Yes.
- 43:26John Dunaway: No. No. No. It... This...
- 43:28I felt terrible hey, Larkin. I shot two dove with one shot. And Larkin goes, man, that's more dove than I've ever shot
- 44:19Ryan Yarnell: in my entire life. And I'm like, oh my... He's like,
- 44:26John Dunaway: they have better game than I do Right. In my forties. Yeah. And these two fools at seven and eight years old are just jaw jacking back and forth. Man, I
- 44:35Ryan Yarnell: was done. Well, dad is an awesome dude. I mean Oh, yes.
- 44:39John Dunaway: Yeah. Props to Michael. Yeah. Let's work. There's a reason his kid is that good.
- 44:43Ryan Yarnell: Oh, yeah. And he said he shot one out of the air today.
- 44:46John Dunaway: Oh, he's only did?
- 44:47Ryan Yarnell: So he killed one out of the air. First one. Props to him. So at eight years old. You know?
- 44:50So First one. Yet again, PB. You know? Great thing. Memories that
- 44:53Barton Ramsey: will never be forgotten. You bet.
- 44:55Wade Shoemaker: That's cool. So cat... The cat daddy championship belt. Like Who won that?
- 45:00Barton Ramsey: Who was... This other kid caught one. They had to go compare pictures of the fish. Right? I don't
- 45:05John Dunaway: care if actually weigh them. So this is Was it Josh's son? Yep. So also another kid. Don't get me wrong.
- 45:13I think he's 14.
- 45:15Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. He was older.
- 45:15John Dunaway: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Two years ago, nobody ever
- 45:19Wade Shoemaker: I remember this.
- 45:20John Dunaway: Nobody spent time fishing. Right? And so we're back. We're all get doing dinner and everything, and I see these photos. Like, did you see the photos of this catfish that Leon caught?
- 45:29I was like, what? And he caught it out of the Wasaka, which is
- 45:34Wade Shoemaker: Explain to that what
- 45:35John Dunaway: that is. Yeah. So down here, they called them Rusaka, which is pretty much just like a drainage ditch.
- 45:39Ryan Yarnell: Yeah.
- 45:39John Dunaway: You know? And has this hammer. So last year, Ford from Zilker Belt shows up and catches an absolute hammer. Dude. Mean, it's like Donkey.
- 45:52Yeah. This is a record yet to be topped. Like, that's the new staple.
- 45:57Ryan Yarnell: Next year, baby. Yeah.
- 45:58John Dunaway: You gotta bring a rod.
- 46:00Barton Ramsey: I'm fly rod.
- 46:00Ryan Yarnell: I'm I'm told you to bring me a rod. I was like,
- 46:03John Dunaway: come on.
- 46:03Ryan Yarnell: So so Ford
- 46:04John Dunaway: catches his giant thing, and he goes, man, we should have, like, a catfish tournament. Like... I'm like, well, it's already, like, a food and beverage festival with a hunting problem. I guess we could start fishing, you know, while we're at it. So we get a wrestling belt.
- 46:23Ryan Yarnell: Which was hilarious. That's so awesome. Great belt.
- 46:25Wade Shoemaker: Yes. Yeah. I got a picture of it.
- 46:26John Dunaway: Yeah. And now they get to keep it for a year. And this is funny. Right? So I told Larkin because he was on a roll.
- 46:33He had... Oh, yeah. Yeah. Cat day. Banger banger photo.
- 46:36So Yeah. Larkin had four catfish on the bag, and they're a good size. We gotta give them credit. And I told him, I walked up to him and said, you see this belt? You know, the biggest catfish is gonna win this belt.
- 46:48You get to keep it for a year. And without missing a beat, he goes, well, that means you gotta invite me next year.
- 46:59Ryan Yarnell: Michael, he's done so good. Eight.
- 47:02Barton Ramsey: That's two...
- 47:03Ryan Yarnell: I'm like, well, guess you
- 47:04Wade Shoemaker: can invite me next year.
- 47:05John Dunaway: Yeah. I'm like, there are 40 year olds that aren't that smooth asking for an
- 47:09Barton Ramsey: invite. Golly. You know?
- 47:11Wade Shoemaker: No. North Carolina boys. Oof. He...
- 47:14John Dunaway: He's got it going. So let's talk about
- 47:17Wade Shoemaker: this golden ticket. Very cool thing. You kinda let... That's, like, everybody have a chance to get in. Right?
- 47:22Yeah. You get one, and then there's... But there's more to it. It's more than just they get in. There's also, like, a bigger a bigger piece of that puzzle.
- 47:29Right?
- 47:30John Dunaway: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So this event never had any intentions of growing to what people might think it is or whatever you wanna call it.
- 47:38I still look at it as I got a bunch of friends together, and we get to hunt at a place that's really special to me, and I love that. So people were getting annoyed. They were like, how do we get in? Well, we're not opening spots because it's... We have to curate it because we're hanging out.
- 47:55We're in very close proximity. And if you just start bringing in random people to a giant mix, you lose the camaraderie that can go on. You you could easily build that. Yeah. But there's a faction of that that's different.
- 48:09Right? When you bring people in that you know very well, that you just don't get to keep up with, and everybody's got busy schedules, and that's what it was about. Mhmm. And because of that, I just didn't open the books. So people were getting annoyed.
- 48:22I thought, man, what could we do? And we reached out to TPWF, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, nonprofit arm of the department, said, hey. I'm not a five zero one c three. I don't wanna be one. But if y'all would handle this, I would love to find a way that we would give away a ticket.
- 48:39The people donate to a cause that's better than us, and then they raise some money. Yeah. And we let somebody in. Yeah. And the next year, we did it again.
- 48:48And so here we are. I gotta look. Five, maybe six years of golden tickets. It's five years.
- 48:55Barton Ramsey: Let's take a look. Yeah. Because my my first year was the first year of a golden ticket.
- 48:58John Dunaway: And so when we first gave the golden ticket away, we had zero... I always say we, let's be honest. Like, I run it by myself. I run it by myself, but I have a ton of help now.
- 49:11Barton Ramsey: Let's give Kim some credit
- 49:12Ryan Yarnell: for it.
- 49:13Barton Ramsey: Come on,
- 49:13John Dunaway: man. Kim does actually does nothing for me. I mean, she kinda stops.
- 49:16Barton Ramsey: But here's the deal. You're home from work, and you should be off, and she's keeping up with those feral children while you're doing PB stuff. Yes. So we'll give her credit.
- 49:23Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. Yeah.
- 49:24John Dunaway: Yeah. Sorry, Kim. Yeah. Kim's making it.
- 49:28Ryan Yarnell: We love you, Kim. Yeah.
- 49:29John Dunaway: Yeah. She's she supports the crazy ideas that I have.
- 49:33Wade Shoemaker: They could probably beat us up if we said anything different.
- 49:35John Dunaway: Oh, true
- 49:35Ryan Yarnell: that. She'll definitely whip our butts.
- 49:37Wade Shoemaker: She'd whoop my
- 49:38Ryan Yarnell: tail. Yeah. Yep.
- 49:38John Dunaway: She will. And so the intention was never to give that person another intro to PB. It was like, hey. You donated to a great cause. It's a five one two three.
- 49:51We have no touch with that. They draw the name. You get to come. Cool. We'll see you later.
- 49:55Thanks for coming. They show up. Banger.
- 49:58Barton Ramsey: They were rad.
- 49:59John Dunaway: Editions. They were rad. Were so good. Like, well, I guess we have to invite them. Year two, year three, year four.
- 50:07And, like, they kept being such good humans
- 50:10Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 50:10John Dunaway: On a random drawing that I don't know if this is mathematically possible, but they've all returned, and they have a standing invite. Mhmm. So here we are now, five years in. We've raised over a $100,000 this year to two different nonprofits. And with a golden ticket, this is also really wild.
- 50:33The person that won this year, TPWF, was... Happened to be from New Orleans, and he's a direct friend of the first ever golden ticket winner.
- 50:41Wade Shoemaker: No way. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Because they came together.
- 50:44John Dunaway: And it's a random drawing. Like, we have no say so in this. Yeah. They just dip... Did their hands in the pot to see what we got.
- 50:52So That's right. That's where it's gone. We we weren't trying to build anything. We're still not trying to build anything, and all we did was look for, hey. And and on my end, I'm having the best time.
- 51:04It's my favorite weekend of the year. I get to see all my friends that I might see in little groups, maybe singularly, but never again in this year will I put all these people in the same room and get to hang out. Yeah. And so what happens here, this is why I do it. And so we open the doors, like, man, let's let some other people in, and we'll take the gamble.
- 51:24Like, we could deal with one person at a time, you know, or or their friend. And so here we are. It's worked out so well. It's... Well, I would have never imagined this is what it would come to.
- 51:34So Yeah. Over a $100,000 for two nonprofits. Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, which is a nonprofit arm of the department, and Hogs for the Cause, which is pediatric brain cancer Yeah. Which is... Man, if you just think about what it is and what those families have to deal with Yeah.
- 51:51Grant Pinkerton has cooked for us for multiple years now, he brought it to my attention. I I didn't know what it was. Yeah. And he said, man, look. I've been supporting this for a long time.
- 52:01I'd love if we could get that involved. Like, dude, sign us up. Like, how much can we raise? And so we started raising some money for the food. Yeah.
- 52:09Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. I was gonna say shout out to all the food.
- 52:11Wade Shoemaker: Kit too this year, that Pinkerton barbecue thing. So pretty excited about that.
- 52:15Ryan Yarnell: I hope that fits in my suitcase. I'm a be carrying it on under my arm.
- 52:19Wade Shoemaker: Did... Wasn't there something last year... And correct me, like, if I'm wrong, maybe this isn't something I think we talk about a lot out loud, but the lady that we... That you rent the fields from Yeah. Like, because there was also something with the brain cancer.
- 52:30Cancer or something. Right? So so... Touch on that.
- 52:32John Dunaway: So it wasn't her. So
- 52:34Wade Shoemaker: It wasn't her.
- 52:35John Dunaway: Yeah. So this event is not a business. Mm-mm. It's not a profitable event. Yeah.
- 52:41We run it just a touch over cost so that we can roll the money forward. Yeah. And I've always been clear to everybody about that. Like, man, I wanna keep it as low as we can so that everybody can come. We got we got the 50 people, and I called a chef buddy, Sessegil Gardner.
- 52:58Shout out to
- 52:58Wade Shoemaker: Which is like a very conservative way to call him a chef buddy. Like, he's he's he's gangster, dude. Yeah. Worked official and stars. Can't fit through them door frames right there.
- 53:08John Dunaway: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, he's running his own... Wade's jacked, but he makes Wade look like me.
- 53:14Wade Shoemaker: They make Diary of a Wimpy Kid is what I look like.
- 53:17Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. This is Seth Stout.
- 53:18John Dunaway: Yeah.
- 53:18Ryan Yarnell: That dude is swole up.
- 53:20John Dunaway: That dude is jacked. And so I called up Seth. I was like, hey, man. We got 50 people coming. What do you think Morgan and I could cook for everybody?
- 53:29And without, you know, saying the exact wording that he used, he's like, you're crazy. And with the deep voice that he uses, it's like, now they're all like, look. We've always figured out. This is why PB has always run even now. Like, we'll just figure it out.
- 53:43Ryan Yarnell: Sell some burgers.
- 53:44John Dunaway: No. You need a professional. That's me. You know what I said? We don't have money to hire a professional.
- 53:49I know what a professional's gonna cost. It's gonna cost, like, $15,000 to cater out over all weekend. Like Yeah. That's like 65% of the money at the time that we even had for the whole thing. That was like lodging, food, booze Yeah.
- 54:03You know, field hunting, everything. Like, there's no money for that. I'll show up. And he showed up, and he cooked this absolutely absurd seafood paella.
- 54:15Ryan Yarnell: That was my first year.
- 54:16Wade Shoemaker: And he goes hard, dude. Bro, like
- 54:18Ryan Yarnell: That was unbelievable. Was like He was growing up.
- 54:19John Dunaway: Here last year. Yes. He brings his son all the time, Levi.
- 54:22Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. Yep. They they stayed next to us, yeah, last year. Anyway. Yeah.
- 54:26John Dunaway: And that elevated to the next stage to where we started adding chefs in. And because we didn't have enough money in the kitty without raising the ticket price, And my goal is always, like, keep the ticket price as low as possible so that everybody could come. We needed to run a raffle. Yeah. Because we had all these brands that were showing up and doing stuff or just wanted, you know, some kind of exposure.
- 54:52And so if we run a raffle, we can generate some money, and we'll take that money, and then we could give it to the chefs. And that's how it started. It was just about paying the chefs Mhmm. Because we didn't have any money. And then the money started growing, and people were throwing in larger ticket items like s o k puppy.
- 55:11Mhmm. You know?
- 55:12Wade Shoemaker: Keep this going
- 55:12John Dunaway: everywhere. Last year, we got to the point where the the Luke family that owns this property, White Wing Fields that we've been... I've been hunting at since I was 12 years old. It was terrible news. Her brother was sick with cancer.
- 55:27You know, they're farmers. They just salt of the earth kind of people. They've always taken care of me. He was really sick, and we finished the raffle. I walked over there.
- 55:39I took a check out of them... Out of my center console, and I wrote him a check for... He cut it out, but whatever. I wrote him a check for $4,000. No.
- 55:46I didn't. Paloma Blanco wrote the family a check for $4,000. I walked over there. I've been coming here since I was 12 years old. Yeah.
- 55:55I was 40 at the time. I've never never met their mom. I've never seen her ever. She happened to be there. She was sitting in the swing next to him, and I walked over there and said, listen.
- 56:07Thank you so much for taking care of the fields. You've always done a great job. You've always helped us out. I just want you to know that from from our side, from PB, we wanna do as much as we can for your family to help you out. And his mom stood up and gave...
- 56:23Look. It was a check that was folded in half. She didn't see it. Yeah. It could have been $5.
- 56:29Yeah. She had no clue and he didn't open it. And she stood up immediately and she walked and she hugged me and started crying. I started crying. I might start crying right now.
- 56:40She's like, thank you so much for what you're doing for the family. It's like, we are doing something that is greater than us. Yeah. We come to play and hang out and be around our friends. And the nonprofit side that we've been able to support has become a whole other op...
- 56:59Like, identity of it that I love pursuing. So we throw this raffle. We raise a bunch of money, and we cut checks people. So it's like, you know, the Loop family was struggling last year with with the cancer. Great friend Owen Gaylor was struggling with his own cancer issues.
- 57:16We donated a great sum to them, and we just went through the buckets. We're like, well, let's up Hogs With The Cause, you know, whoever we give to, let's pay all the chefs. The chefs show up without getting paid.
- 57:30Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Which is That's wild. Yeah. It's crazy. Because it's work, bro.
- 57:33Ryan Yarnell: And listen, like, every dude.
- 57:34Barton Ramsey: Everyone listening to this who has followed along on social media, you all know the number one thing that you guys respond
- 57:40Wade Shoemaker: to Yeah. Is the food.
- 57:42John Dunaway: I would
- 57:42Barton Ramsey: show up for the food. Every time. Was like... And and dude, for them to show up and do what they do without saying, hey, I need a huge check It's upfront is... Honestly, it's asinine.
- 57:52John Dunaway: Look, it's... I I have used some of these outfits for other events that I do with with friends or business outlets, and they send an invoice. Yeah. An anti heavy invoice. And like And it's not we don't have enough money without charging everybody Double.
- 58:10Yeah. A lot more, and they show up just to be here. And then we give them a little raffle money and and cover the cost of some things. We we look, we cover all their expenses
- 58:22Ryan Yarnell: Yeah.
- 58:23John Dunaway: But they don't make a profit on it. And and I wanna give credit to all of them that have ever showed up. Yeah. Whether it's Good Company or Grant Pinkerton Seth. You know, Seth, Morgan and Marty doing the Sunday throw down.
- 58:35They don't have a restaurant.
- 58:37Barton Ramsey: Old Bart doing breakfast for us, slinging it off the back of a Can
- 58:40John Dunaway: Am's. Yeah. Yeah. Right? It was...
- 58:43This is what what PB is. Right? It's a bunch of friends showing up to help each other out. So
- 58:51Ryan Yarnell: I mean, Yeti showed up with their trailer, hooks, pit hole pitch.
- 58:54John Dunaway: Look. And that's the whole thing. Barton comes down. He brings his dogs because he wants to come, and we'll get as much content possible to talk about the dogs because what... The event in PB is not a brand.
- 59:11It has nowhere to go. If it dissolves into the ether, nothing will change. It'll just disappear, and we'll all still be friends. But y'all have real livelihoods and businesses. And so from the PB front, it's let's push the people that made this possible.
- 59:29It's the chefs that show up. It's Barton bringing a bunch of dogs that help all these people out that don't wanna walk out on the field today.
- 59:36Barton Ramsey: Especially on a muddy day, bro.
- 59:37Wade Shoemaker: Especially on days
- 59:37John Dunaway: like tonight.
- 59:38Ryan Yarnell: Thank you, Barton.
- 59:39John Dunaway: Turtle box dropping the music. Pack meal bringing in the pack meals. Yeti covering up all the coolers and the ice.
- 59:48Ryan Yarnell: Heavy with the ammo.
- 59:49John Dunaway: Dead showing up. Heavy with the ammo. The... I mean, the list Yeah. Will pull the roster out and go.
- 59:55Ryan Yarnell: JJ goes to someone like 20 guns.
- 59:57Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. He shows up with
- 59:59Ryan Yarnell: a paw.
- 1:00:00John Dunaway: Yeah. But we're like, oh, what's a sponsor fee? And this is the thing with PB. We charge no sponsor fee. Correct.
- 1:00:08Because it's not about making money. We're like, hey. We wanna highlight your brand, and you take that forward because what you did show up here and put that brand in the real identity where it lives Yeah. In the outdoors and let them all shine, and then all the friends hang out. Like
- 1:00:25Barton Ramsey: And everybody's taking pictures of everybody's office setup. Everything. What's the tent company?
- 1:00:30John Dunaway: Padre? Yeah. Padre Outdoors.
- 1:00:32Ryan Yarnell: By the way, I... No.
- 1:00:34Barton Ramsey: Go ahead,. No. The Padre guys, I met them last year.
- 1:00:37Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 1:00:37Barton Ramsey: They showed, like, a brand new idea. And lo and behold... No. No. No.
- 1:00:40It was two years ago.
- 1:00:41John Dunaway: Two ago.
- 1:00:42Barton Ramsey: And we set up on that corner of that field, me and JD, and it starts raining.
- 1:00:49John Dunaway: I do pull out. That's a good one.
- 1:00:50Barton Ramsey: He's like, I gotcha. He sets this tent up, and I'm like, dude, I've never heard of your brand.
- 1:00:57John Dunaway: Yeah.
- 1:00:58Barton Ramsey: It's brand new, and we're using it in the wild.
- 1:01:00Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 1:01:00Barton Ramsey: And AD is just crushing photos of this thing. And I'm like, I'm shooting dove, and I'm dry. Yeah.
- 1:01:06Wade Shoemaker: In the rain.
- 1:01:07Barton Ramsey: This... Yeah. And it's pouring. Yeah. Pouring.
- 1:01:09But this tent is set up. My gun's dry. And you... Dude, I just remember sitting there like, oh, this is rad. We're gonna post the mess out of this because you're...
- 1:01:19We're using your stuff. And the next year, we're using it to just keep people cool because there's a 110
- 1:01:24John Dunaway: degrees.
- 1:01:25Ryan Yarnell: I'm bright.
- 1:01:25Barton Ramsey: Dude setting up tents. So, yeah, I do love that there are so many different
- 1:01:29Ryan Yarnell: And Yogi bins.
- 1:01:31John Dunaway: Yeah. Yogi showed up.
- 1:01:32Ryan Yarnell: How many cell holes we put in there?
- 1:01:34Barton Ramsey: Up and, like It's
- 1:01:36John Dunaway: because real thought
- 1:01:36Barton Ramsey: of, hey. You got a 125 people out here, Duff, honey. You know much trash we produce?
- 1:01:40Wade Shoemaker: Oh, gosh.
- 1:01:41Ryan Yarnell: Gave us all one last year. Like, everybody that attended.
- 1:01:44Barton Ramsey: Yeah. As like a, hey, we love you guys here. Yeah. That was one. Use it.
- 1:01:47Wade Shoemaker: And then we know the cool thing is they showed up, and I didn't know what they were the first year they were here. Me either. And it was just big 55 gallon, like, old drums with a wrap on it. I was like, well, that's... Maybe it's a service.
- 1:01:58You know? Nope. That was just like branding, and then it worked out because everybody knows what it is now.
- 1:02:03Ryan Yarnell: Yeah. Just You know what I did not get a picture of?
- 1:02:06John Dunaway: What's that?
- 1:02:06Ryan Yarnell: The new logoed speaker.
- 1:02:08Wade Shoemaker: I bet you there's one
- 1:02:09Ryan Yarnell: or two places. I'm just saying I didn't even... I saw them, but I never got a picture of one, but it turned out
- 1:02:14John Dunaway: It kinda goes back to the whole thing of PB. Like, we're... The brands are here. We're encouraging brands, and we're pushing each other. And people just don't look at it like it's an event that they have to, like, showcase it.
- 1:02:30No. Because it's it's not an event. Right? And one thing I would tell people Gathering. Two things I I would like to push people.
- 1:02:41Find your friends. Mhmm. Find what's important to you, and then take the baseline of that and go, hey, if we all got together, what could we add to it? Just take one element. What we add to it that make that hang out Yeah.
- 1:02:55Better? Yeah. Then from there, go the next year. What could we add to it? Make it a little bit better.
- 1:03:02Mhmm. And just keep taking that and roll with it.
- 1:03:06Wade Shoemaker: And know you that you can't start this year one.
- 1:03:09John Dunaway: Yeah. And and the other thing I wanna say is don't reach out to brands because you want stuff. Mhmm. Because that's not... Okay.
- 1:03:17You're not helping a brand, and you're not helping yourself. Yeah. You're asking for something. This isn't... PB is not a charity.
- 1:03:24And whatever you choose to do in life, it's it's not a charity.
- 1:03:28Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 1:03:28John Dunaway: It's a two way street. If you're helping other people, it has a, you know, what... Whatever you wanna call it. Right? Like, you're generating effort for them, and in turn, the effort that they put forward is beneficial to you.
- 1:03:44It's a relationship. Because everybody wants a handout, but this isn't about handout. This is about helping each other grow in whatever it is you do in life. It's no different whether you're getting a free cooler or whether you're looking for somebody to hang out with. Yeah.
- 1:04:00If that person has something that you're looking to take because it's on the backside of that, you're not looking for their for their friendship. Mhmm. You're looking for what they have. No.
- 1:04:09Wade Shoemaker: I love that.
- 1:04:10John Dunaway: It's
- 1:04:10Ryan Yarnell: like Absolutely. No.
- 1:04:11Wade Shoemaker: That's good. I wanna... We're just over an hour here. I'm gonna go
- 1:04:13Ryan Yarnell: ahead and try to get...
- 1:04:14Wade Shoemaker: We'll wrap this up. It went quick. It was good.
- 1:04:16Barton Ramsey: Well, we've... I've counted over sixty minutes, and there are three types of people in the world. Yep. Those who can count and those who can't. And John just said he was gonna give two pieces of advice, and he gave four.
- 1:04:29John Dunaway: No. No. No. Number one was actually... Number one was broken down into components.
- 1:04:34Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
- 1:04:35Wade Shoemaker: Oh, so it was a list of It was number one, but this is one point... This is one of. Yeah. One point o.
- 1:04:40John Dunaway: There were bullet points on this one.
- 1:04:41Wade Shoemaker: One a. Yeah. One a sub subsection. One subsection a.
- 1:04:47Barton Ramsey: We're an hour into a podcast midnight after three days
- 1:04:50Wade Shoemaker: of week. Man. And this is the earliest bedtime I think any of us is gonna have.
- 1:04:54Ryan Yarnell: I got
- 1:04:54Barton Ramsey: a 5AM to park.
- 1:04:55Ryan Yarnell: You bet.
- 1:04:55Wade Shoemaker: I got a five... About six. Yeah. That's good. Let's...
- 1:04:58Anybody wanna say anything before we go?
- 1:05:01Barton Ramsey: Well, if anyone's listening to this, I just want you to be encouraged that I hope what you've heard is that this isn't some sort of, like, exclusive thing. The encouragement is you can do something like this. And whether it reaches crazy social media hype levels or not, you can create something that's really fun and has a generational impact. Yeah. Because that's what I think John has done.
- 1:05:25And it's... And John wouldn't want all that credit. I can see it in your eyes right now. John's like, I don't I don't need the credit for this, but in a lot of ways, you do get that. But it's also just choosing the right people with the same values to be around you.
- 1:05:38And so it is a multigenerational thing that you can create, but... And and I think there's a temptation to say, I just really wanna be a part of that.
- 1:05:46Ryan Yarnell: Mhmm.
- 1:05:47Barton Ramsey: And instead, use that energy to say, I just really wanna create something like that.
- 1:05:50John Dunaway: Yes. Yeah.
- 1:05:51Wade Shoemaker: Or I I really want something like that for my pals Yeah. Which I think is really kinda where this... What this stemmed from beginning.
- 1:05:58Ryan Yarnell: I'd like to say, get your kids outside. Look at what John Dunaway started from his dad taking him dove hunting in this field since he was 12 years old. Look at the friendships that have developed from just that little task that his dad did that many years ago, and all of his friends here with a 100 people here at this trip, a 113. Go outside, get yourself outside, get your kids outside, get your friends outside, have fun. Go enjoy the environment.
- 1:06:23You never know what may come of it in your life and where you may lead you and where your kids may end up because of it. And I sure enjoy the time I spend with you guys and what you... Watching you guys be fathers in the men you are.
- 1:06:33Wade Shoemaker: Yeah.
- 1:06:34Ryan Yarnell: So just wanna remind everybody that go have a good time, enjoy the outdoors, and treat it treat it well.
- 1:06:42Wade Shoemaker: That's good. Be diligent.
- 1:06:44John Dunaway: Yeah. For me, it's just the only thing we have is time. And so what are you gonna do with it? Find the greatest people that you can spend it with. If they...
- 1:06:56I would say, if you can add value to somebody else's life, that's a relationship you you should have. Mhmm. If they're adding value to your life, you're looking for something. Go out there and find the people that you can deploy whatever it may be to make their life better. And in turn, you just take that grander than anything.
- 1:07:18Ryan Yarnell: Mhmm.
- 1:07:18John Dunaway: So if you take this for anything, don't look for glory. Don't look for, you know, people talking about it. Don't look for a partnership. Find the people that you wanna be with. Find the things you wanna do, and then go, what can I add to that?
- 1:07:36And let it roll.
- 1:07:37Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. Let it rip. Very cool. Very cool.
- 1:07:40Ryan Yarnell: Of course.
- 1:07:40Wade Shoemaker: Yeah. I think I'll just close it out, and I think we've all kind of communicated that this is probably a lot of our favorite event of the year, right, no matter what. And and I think it it is our favorite event of the year because we get to come here and we get to turn our switches off, and we get to be with the people that we wanna be with. Not that we don't wanna be with people... Other people everywhere else, but these are the people we choose to be with if we have a choice.
- 1:08:00Right? Like, this... We would be with these people any other day of the year. And I think that's kind of the... This...
- 1:08:05If there's not a sauce, but if there is something you can consider the sauce, it's doing it with the people you wanna do it with, and you can be who you are, and you don't have to worry about having a big smile every time you show up even though you do naturally. Right?
- 1:08:16John Dunaway: Yeah.
- 1:08:18Wade Shoemaker: And then the coolest part isn't... I think it's... Another piece of it is it's not because of what... Of, like, what happens here. It's because we don't care what happens here.
- 1:08:27Like Right. We're gonna come in and have a good time no matter what happens, no matter the weather, no matter the hunting, no matter... The food's always gonna be great. But even if it wasn't, we would still have a great time. So, yeah, I I think we love this place more than anything because it's...
- 1:08:40It doesn't matter what happens here. We know that we're gonna be here, and that's all that matters. Right?
- 1:08:44John Dunaway: Yeah. It only matters about the people that show up.
- 1:08:48Wade Shoemaker: That's right.
- 1:08:48John Dunaway: So It's gonna be good. In between is what matters the most.
- 1:08:52Wade Shoemaker: That's good. Fellas, look, I'm gonna end it there. One hour. We're about seventy minutes. Folks, if you're still here, thank you so much.
- 1:09:00Glad I got to share this with you. John, Barton, Yarnell, thank you all for joining us on the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. I'm your host, Wade Shoemaker. Stay smooth.
- 1:09:11VO: That's a wrap for today's episode of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast brought to you by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. From post hunt unwinds to celebrations back at camp, Bird Dog delivers award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe, and check out ducks.org/dupodcast for more stories, science, and all things waterfowl. Guest opinions are their own and don't necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited.
- 1:09:36Until next time, stay fired up, stay focused, and stay tuned to the ducks.