Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Matt Harrison: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Matt Harrison, and today we have Mr. Brodie Swisher. Brody, how you doing?

Brodie Swisher: Appreciate you. Give me a chance to jump on and talk a little bit today.

Matt Harrison: Absolutely. Absolutely. Brodie is one of my really good friends. Me and Brody had the opportunity a couple of years ago now to share a hunting camp together and me and Brody right off the bat hit it off and we had a great time in camp. We were able to spend a couple of days together. And there's no relationship like a hunting camp relationship. And I tell you what, it has been a friendship. You know, I don't get to see Brody very often, but when I do, it's always like we've seen each other every single day since the first time we met. Brody's one of those guys that is just as good as gold and he does things the right way and has a heart of gold and loves the outdoors. And I cannot wait for him to be able to share a little bit about that with you all today. So Brody, One of the things that I admire about you the most is your heart for the outdoors, the youth, the involvement, and the betterment of the communities around you. I love that. And you have a podcast yourself, you have a brand yourself called Hunting Roots, and I want you to give our listeners a little bit of a background about what that is and kind of how that got started and why you started that.

Brodie Swisher: question, you know, because a lot of people say, hey, what is hunting roots all about? And the name really does say it all. I mean, hunting roots is us getting back to our roots and sharing how we got started. You know, guys have been doing it for years, just kind of telling their story. That's what we say, telling the story and sharing the story, how we got started, what our hunting roots are all about, but also helping newcomers. We say kids, but even folks that are adults that are getting into hunting later on, helping them establish their hunting routes. And so we do that through the podcast. But beyond the podcast, that's been the last three years, I guess. But even beyond that, doing live events, camps for kids, hunter education, and just all those things. We've been doing that for a long time, honestly, 25 years or more. just using hunting in the outdoors to impact the lives of kids, families, men, women, boys, and girls, just using, again, hunting in the outdoors to help them see and learn and just to, like I said, truly impact them. So it may be wild game dinners at churches, Sportsman's Expos, live events that we put on, bowhunter camps, turkey camps. We started the wild turkey workshop just last year and had a big time. So just anything and everything to help those folks either establish their roots or get back to their roots as a hunter. And I'll just tell that story and again the podcast is how we do it every week. We've been, I guess we're in our third season now with the podcast and just bringing weekly stories it may be me and my boys on a podcast we probably got you know one of the podcasts it's got the youngest podcasters out there because oftentimes that's it just me and my co-host or my own boys and some people may hate it but you know what it's just us sharing our story each week and walking through the season talking through the season and hopefully it's entertaining educational and it just helps those folks equip themselves for the journey

Matt Harrison: And that's one thing, like I said, I highly admire about you, Brodie, is your heart to get the ones who aren't involved, involved. And that doesn't mean if it's a youth, it doesn't mean if you're 50 and you've never been hunting. It's about getting the ones that maybe have not had that opportunity or had the pleasure of growing up in a home that enjoys outdoors or gets to go fishing with their dad. It's a wide variety of getting the ones involved that are the less fortunate or the ones that have just never had the opportunity to get outdoors. Can you speak a little bit of why kind of your passion for that is? Like, is that something that you, you know, I've never really heard your story. Did you grow up in the outdoors? Did you have a dad that taught you how to hunt? Or why is your heart so fixated on getting people involved that may not have ever been involved with the outdoors?

Brodie Swisher: No, I did. I grew up in a in a great home, mom and dad both in the home and just a godly, godly foundation I've had. And my dad did take me on my first time. I think I was eight or nine years old. We went squirrel hunting. And I'll never forget that time. I vividly remember trying to, you know, walk behind him, keep up with his bootsteps, you know, in the mud and following him out to the a spot that we set and he shot two squirrels that morning. I remember just the whole experience, the excitement of it, but also that somewhat sadness of seeing this animal die and going over and picking up this animal that my dad just shot and just kind of the whole life and death experience played out there. And, uh, but it's something that I just, I just loved it. And, uh, he instilled that in me, he was a small game hunter. Uh, and, and so we did that and, uh, went and got through the hunter education course there. Uh, actually right there by the, uh, at the agri center down at the old, uh, home base there in Memphis, Tennessee, where I took my hunter education class back. I think it was 86. So it's been a few years, but, uh, Went through the whole deal and it just absolutely loved it. It's kind of weird because my family was not, you know, hunting family, my immediate family, they were, we were big sports guys. All my brothers and siblings were into sports. And I was the one that really just, for whatever reason, I don't know where it came from other than God Almighty, you know, I just had that inside me, just that burn of passion to pursue the outdoors and hunting. And so dad got me started. And then it was some folks from a church that we were going to in Paris, Tennessee. We lived up here for a few years back then. Some folks from church said, hey, man, we've got the youth deer hunt going on. It's a Tennessee youth deer season in November. It was November 5th, 1988. And they took me, some folks from church took me on a deer hunt. My dad was sitting below me and I was in a little small tree stand six feet off the ground, about all it was. Dad, my brother on the ground below me and shot a little buck that morning, first 30 minutes. And I mean, it was a tiny little eight point buck, a basket rack, just as small as they get. But again, it was just one of those things, just a milestone that really just Lord used it for just being that just kind of, again, burning passion that's never let up. So I was fortunate. I was one of the fortunate ones. My dad was there and he walked me through it. I had mentors that guided me into it and took me along. But I think it really, as I got a little bit older and through high school, saw friends, folks from church that didn't have that opportunity. I saw A lot of single moms struggling to get their kids outside. They had kids that wanted to do the outdoor deal and wanted to hunt, but had no way of doing it. And so that's where we really, I had a burden for those single moms and those kids who were wanting to get involved. And so that's kind of where we started lining things up and just helping them get in the outdoors, taking some of those kids from single parent homes, getting them out there so they could get a taste of and see what it's all about. And I think that's just the biggest thing, man, just having some exposure to people that that didn't have mom and dad both there, you know, kids growing up without dad in the picture and just how tragic that is, what they were missing out on. Man, I'll be honest with you. I think it's a crime for any kid not to have the opportunity to shoot a BB gun, catch a fish. And so I hear kids say, but I've never been fishing before, you know, the 10, 12, you know, hitting the big teenager and they said I've never been fishing before I've never shot a baby gun before I think my gosh me we've got to do something about this and that was really it man just looking for those kids that have been. Miss the opportunity to enjoy hunting the outdoors and just not want anybody be left behind but you know one make sure. Every child has that opportunity just to see what's all about.

Matt Harrison: No doubt, no doubt. And Brodie, thank you so much, you know, for giving us a background about yourself and kind of how you got involved. It's an awesome story. Now, kind of moving on a little bit, I want to talk about shifting gears here. Uh, me and you had a conversation yesterday about, you know, your podcast and your brand and kind of some of the hot topics that you hear around the hunting world today in the communities. And, you know, whenever you had mentioned this topic, I was like, yeah, that, that's a pretty hot topic. You know, I hear it myself. I feel like just about every outdoorsman hears it. Uh, and, and that is what is. a successful hunt. What is considered a successful hunt? You hear these deer hunters, well, if they don't shoot 150-inch deer, it's not successful. Well, if you don't go and you don't shoot at least three or four limits of ducks, you're not successful. If you don't go and you don't catch a five-pound bass, it's not successful. Me and you agreed on this. I had this conversation yesterday of how we have gotten so far away from what a true successful hunt is. And I want you to dive into a little bit of kind of your thoughts on that, because like I said, we hear it all the time. I wasn't successful. Today wasn't a good hunt. Well, what'd you do? You know, man, I shot 10 ducks. Well, that's not successful. You know, you hear all these different, different opinions on this. So I want you to elaborate a little bit on that, on how we have gotten here and just kind of why we are the way we are as hunters nowadays from what it has been in the past.

Brodie Swisher: You know, social media has been, social media can be like anything. It can be, you know, good. It can be bad. And I mean, I think social media has been very much the culprit for the downfall of a lot of good things that we've known in the past, and very much so when it comes to hunting. Because here's the deal, what we post on social media We post the big bucks, we post the handfuls of ducks, we post the big fish. You don't see many people posting the day when you got one duck in your hand or that's a small fish or somebody that shot a doe instead of a big monster buck. People post the best and best of life and they don't want to put anything out there that might look like you know, might present them as inferior or not as big as the next guy. And, uh, man, it's just, you know, social media, a lot of folks live the life through it, unfortunately. And, you know, if you don't careful, unfortunately, our young, our young people, uh, are, are not mature enough to realize, Hey, that's not the daily deal. That's not how life always is. And they see these guys posted a picture day after day of, uh, Mallard ducks laid out there on the log. And, you know, those guys got, thirty something plus ducks out there on the log. And man, here I am standing with a couple handfuls of divers and some coots, man. What am I doing wrong? And they have this where they feel inferior, and they're scared to put their hunt out there. They're scared to share their picture. I've seen it with my own kids. Like, hey, I was going to shoot this deer. Dad, I almost shot him, but I was afraid people might laugh at me if I post a picture. I can't post a picture of that buck. It's too small. And I thought, what a shame, you know, that we would find ourselves in a place where we don't enjoy the hunt because we're afraid of what somebody else might think. Now, obviously we're all about keeping it legal. We're not talking about doing something and enjoying something that's not legal, but man, enjoy the hunt. It's your tag. Enjoy that hunt. That's what I've kind of preached to my kids is just don't worry about what other people, what they think and what they hold as the standard for size and inches and limits. You keep it legal, you keep it right, keep it ethical, and you enjoy your hunt. That's kind of the biggest thing. I think we've allowed social media to set this bar and the standard that honestly shouldn't be there. A lot of expectations on these people nowadays to perform at a level or find success at a level that's honestly not achievable. You know what I'm saying? I think about, you know, deer hunting. Deer hunting is honestly the worst because what do you see? Big bucks are king. You flip on outdoor TV and that's what you see is these giant bucks and people have learned to grow them big. And so a kid turns on TV now and it's 180s and now it's not even 180s, now it's 200 inch deer. And it's led a lot of people to think, man, I just killed a little 120, 130 buck, and I better not even talk about that. I better not even. drive through town with it because that's, you know, I'm going to be made fun of because it's not as big as the, the big bucks we're seeing these days. And man, I tell folks, I said, keep, keep successing. It's your, it's your mindset, man. What a trophy is to you is your deal. It's a trophy state of mind. That's, that's your trophy. Uh, and let it be yours. You know, don't let somebody else set that bar of what you, what you should kill or not kill.

Matt Harrison: Yeah, and you made a really good point yesterday when we were talking about this. You know, you said, what gets your heart racing? What gets your adrenaline up? What gets you to smile? What gets you to tell the story after the hunt? You know, that's what a successful hunt is. And you know, I've, on a couple of our previous podcasts, we've talked about that some on, you know, what do we, how do we see a successful hunt? You know, and I've talked about it numerous times that, you know, I literally, my favorite most successful hunts are just me and my brother going out in the woods. And if we limit out, great. But, you know, some of the best hunts are us going and shooting a couple wood ducks off the river. You know, it's literally some of my most fond and memorable hunts are what we did to create that hunt to make it a little bit more special. You know, whether it be a story of one of us slipping and falling and falling off in a hole or whatever, you know. laugh until we can't catch our breath, that one of us missed a duck at five yards, you know, whatever that looks like. But being able to go back and tell those stories and, you know, it made us, it engraved in us a story and a memory, you know, and I feel like people have lost that as in, you know, a successful hunt doesn't always mean you're gonna kill something. It doesn't, you know? I mean, I've been on plenty. I just told this story not too long ago about, you know, me and my brother went on a turkey hunt and we had one, it was the day after we had to, his dog passed away and had a turkey at about 30 yards and we could not get a clean shot. Well, I had a clean shot, but he didn't. And I wanted him to kill it cause it was just, you know, I wanted it to be one of those hunts that we always remembered and he can never get a clean shot. He didn't and that turkey slipped on out of there and we didn't, we came out empty handed. But I mean, it was literally one of our most favorite hunts just because the memories and the excitement and our hearts were literally in our throats because we were so nervous and just the way the turkey had did it, it was just one of those that, you know, couldn't have been any more perfect without, you know, finishing the deal. But, you know, I agree with you when it comes to we see so many things of, oh, you know, this person did that, or they harvested this many ducks, or oh, they shot a deer of that score. We lose sight of how we need to go about considering our hunt successful. We have. And it's sad, you know, and I'm as guilty of it as anybody. I'm as guilty of it as anybody in this world that when you go out, you tell yourself, oh, well, today was a waste of time. No, it wasn't. A lot of times when I'm unsuccessful, I learn more. And when I'm not successful, you learn what not to do, right? I'm a huge believer in your biggest lessons come from your biggest losses. I truly believe that. And that's in the hunting world too, you know. If you go out there and you miss or you don't, You know, you don't make the right shot call on a duck's finishing or something, you know, you learn from that. So every time you get to go out, it's a lesson. And every time you get to just spend the time with either friends, family, like you said, your boys, that's a successful hunt.

Brodie Swisher: I think back, you're sitting there talking, and I think back to some of my hunts and, you know, especially waterfowl, I think back to, You know, there's always those great hunts, like you said, where your limit is filled, and it's just one of those magical days that you'll never forget. But man, when it comes to duck hunting, the one story that me and my buddies talk about more than any of them, it's not about a limit of ducks, and there are those stories, but I go back to one hunt where We were going up the ditch in the boat. I think it's four of us guys, and it was iced up, so we're trying to bust ice up the ditch. We get up and we see something. We thought it was a duck at first swimming in this little open hole, just a tiny little hole, you know, about a foot and a half wide diameter. We get up there and realize it's a coyote that has fallen through the ice, and it's just its head just kind of spinning around this hole trying to get out. We go, my buddy grabs push bowl and he goes with the push bowl. It's going about, if he's trying to help the coyote out, if he's trying to break the ice, what he's doing, he's thinking, you know, we've got this coyote here. Puts a push bowl up to the coyote's head and the coyote freaks out. Doesn't know if he's getting help or getting hurt or whatever. He grabs the push bowl with his mouth. My buddy kind of freaks out, pulls the push bowl out. In the process, he pulls the coyote out of the hole and then somewhere along the line, My bud is back in today. So we didn't have you know spotlights that were cordless It had the corded spotlight to the battery and in all the chaos somebody yanks the cord out of the spotlight Everything goes dark. We've got a coyote on the end of the pushpole coming toward the boat Everybody's beating around in the boat stuff clanging deer going everywhere And my other buddy back there. It's like a first-time hunter. He's screaming the coyotes in the boat the coyotes in the boat And stuff's flying everywhere. We don't know what's going on. Finally somebody gets a light going again. We realize the coyote's gone. We about beat each other to death thinking we're, you know, getting this coyote taken care of. And we get our stuff together that morning and finally everybody's like, okay, we're good. Coyote's gone. Don't know what happened to it. We saved his life instead of ended it. And so we get going back up the ditch, come up to the next beaver dam, off the beaver dam, think, okay, we're good. Everything's good. As soon as we get back in the boat, hop in the beaver dam, my buddy runs up on the stump, the back end of the boat goes down in the water, sink the boat, all right, the boat's standing up right out of the water, we're all standing on the side of the benches in the boat, my buddy swims out, and you know, so I look at that, dude, we never killed a duck that morning. I don't know if we ever even got to the point of duck hunting that morning. No ducks were harmed whatsoever, just pride. But man, that's the one duck hunt we talk about more than any successful hunt. That's the hunt we always go back to. The day we almost got mauled by a coyote and the day we sunk the boat. That's the one, not a duck killed. So I look at that hunt though, man, and here's the deal. There were so many success. That's one of those days I said, hey dude, don't measure your success in limits and inches of bone. Some days the success is you got out alive. We made it back to the truck alive. Nobody got, you know, was harmed, killed, injured, whatever. Which could have been a really bad situation that morning. I mean, there were several close calls that morning. It was success that we just got back. It's the success that we learned so much, you know, from that hunt, you know, uh, as far as safety stuff and just different things, do's and don'ts. That's where you have to take away the things you learn, the things you walk away with, the things you remember for a lifetime. That's success. Uh, find it where you can get it. But that's what I try to tell, uh, again, my kids and anybody else is like, oh man, it was a failed hunt today. No, dude. You ought to take away something every time you go out there. You ought to be learning something. Picking up something, grabbing something from the outdoors and from your hunt is a successful opportunity to pick up and learn.

Matt Harrison: No doubt. You learn something each and every time you go out, if you allow yourself to. One thing I've realized, too, is us, when I say us, I'm talking about me and you here, you know, and many other listeners out there are considered seasonal hunters. You know, you grew up hunting, you go hunting all the time, you turkey hunt, you deer hunt, you duck hunt, you fish. You are an outdoorsman. We both enjoy it. We love to go out. We go out just about every season, whether it's dove hunting, the whole nine, you name it, you're out there. You know, and, you know, we a lot of times will point fingers and say, well, you know, that person, they're giving us a misconception of what a successful hunter is. Well, it's like I tell people a lot of time, hey, timeout, it starts with you, right? It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with Brodie. It starts with the listeners. It starts with everybody. And one thing I've noticed with myself and, you know, with others is, a lot of times us seasonal hunters, If you're taking somebody out that's never been hunting, that doesn't know what a successful hunt looks like, is what kind of excitement are you showing them when you do shoot five? You know what I mean? We may be like, oh yeah, it was a good hunt, but we're going to get back after tomorrow. No. Enjoy that special little moment you have with them, whether you see them. My favorite thing in this world, literally, favorite thing in this world when it comes to outdoors is somebody watching watching somebody either shoot their first duck or shoot their first turkey that is literally I will act like a 12 year old boy that just tasted cotton candy for the first time like I mean I'm gonna act you won't be able to wipe a smile off my face you're not gonna be able to get me to shut up I'm going to probably be running around in circles for at least five minutes. It's literally, get to watch somebody experience that for the first time that's never gotten to see it, never got to feel it. People learn from us. When I say us, I mean people that are their everyday hunter. And when we get the opportunity to showcase what a successful hunter is, make sure your energy, and I don't mean active. I'm not saying act out of characteristic, but when you do have something good going on the hunt, congratulate them. Tell them that's awesome. That's not every day you get to see a turkey strutting at 65 yards, but just out of range. Explain to them what a successful hunt looks like. And like you mentioned a minute ago, of course, we all… I would be a liar if I didn't say I like to shoot some limits and shoot a big turkey or shoot a big deer. You're lying if you… Say you don't, you know. But make sure you are doing your part when it comes to the excitement, when it comes to the way you talk. I talk about this guy all the time. I had the privilege of getting to hunt with in college a lot. His name's Tommy Maxwell. He is a man of gold. Love him to death. One of the best duck hunters I've ever been around. He's literally probably shot more ducks than anybody I know. Cause he's, you know, he's getting on up there in age. He's done it since he was 12. He has some of the best stories and I love him to death, but you, if you shoot a duck around him or I've seen multiple bands killed around him, it's literally like, it's the first he's ever seen. And he just makes you feel like, Oh my goodness, I just did something special. You know, he always is, hey, Attaway, good job, good shot. You know, that's awesome. You smoked that one. Good job, man. You know, and here I am, you know, I hunt all the time and he gets me excited, you know, and it's just important to realize that the way we talk, the way we encourage, the way we act when it is a hunt that may not be conceived as successful, the way we talk about it and the way we make the ones around us feel is so important.

Brodie Swisher: I tell folks all the time, you've got to teach them to love the hunt more than just loving the kill because the kill could come few and far between depending on what you're hunting. Obviously ducks, hopefully we have those days and we have the shot opportunities come more often. Deer hunting, I mean, think about it. It's all you're going to the woods for and you're hanging your success and your excitement on, you know, punching a buck tag once a year, maybe twice a year. That's a lot of downtime. That's a lot of time of, man, this is lame. I mean, I'm living for this one moment that's going to only happen maybe once a year. You know, if I'm having a good year, maybe a couple of times. You've got to learn to love the hunt for the hunt, not just for the notch tag or the limited ducks or the punch tag on the turkey. You've got to pick up those pieces and enjoy the excitement all along that journey to the reward. You've got to learn to love that hunt because that's where you're going to spend most of your time. Obviously, you're putting your time in You better be loving all that time and all those days of field where you don't find success in the way of punch tags. You got to learn to enjoy that or it does make for a long, miserable season if all you're living for is that one moment where you pull the trigger. There's a lot of hours, a lot of time, a lot of brutal weather goes in there with it. Man, you've got to enjoy the experience, you've got to learn to love that hunt for what it is, the things you see, the sunrise popping up, being thankful that you got to live another day to see it, watching your breath come off your lips, all the things that go in that hunt, just feeling it, smelling it, tasting it, everything about it, loving the hunt for what it is and the journey that it is, and then again, That success pulling that trigger, that trigger time is icing on the cake. That's the bonus. But, um, man, you just, you gotta love the hunt and be excited for it. The ins and outs. Just again, being able to get up and go do it one more time.

Matt Harrison: Yeah, no doubt. Well, I want to talk a little bit about how do we get back to our roots? How do we, if we are a hunter, how do we start with ourselves changing, okay, you know, all right, now I'm going to try this year to be a hunter that I'm thankful every time I get to go out. I'm going to be thankful if I'm successful or not. I'm going to be thankful if, you know, I shoot two ducks, you know, if I shoot, you know, four limits with my friends, I'm going to be thankful. I'm going to be thankful if I shoot, you know, a buck that's, that's, I've had on camera that I've been chasing, I'm going to be thankful. You know, how do we get back to our roots? How do we make sure we're doing our part as a hunter in being thankful and just being the generation that changes the game back to what it needs to be?

Brodie Swisher: A lot of times out here guys say, man, I'm, uh, I'm getting, you know, burnout. I don't enjoy it as much. I'm thinking about quitting or laying it down or, or whatever. And I just encourage people to go back to what they started in, you know, talk about literally going back to your roots, man. What was it that you did? Uh, that lit a fire for you, you know, so many years ago, uh, how did you hunt? And somebody would say, well, man, I used to hunt with the, I used to hunt with a 410. back in the day when I was coming up and I said, dude, go back, get your 410, you know, go back and shoot squirrels out of the tree with your 410. Maybe it's taking a 20 gauge instead of your 12 gauge to the duck blind. You know, take that challenge a little different, light a new fire, get back to your roots and the way you started. You know, that for us has been huge in these last several years, just my boys teaching my kids to love squirrel hunting, you know, and that's kind of how I started. Like I said earlier, And let my boys, that's how they've started my daughter, uh, squirrel hunting. And we've just kind of fallen in love with it all over again. And it's, it's something I've said one of these days, that's all I'm going to do. It just, it slipped through the woods, chasing squirrels. We got us a little squirrel dog these last couple of years and been doing a squirrel dog game and dude having an absolute ball. My wife, she enjoys tagging along with the dog because it's her little dog. And so mixing those things up, I think about, you know, you and I talked about when we first met was All up in a deer camp of will Brantley I saw will Brantley post a picture. About a doe he just killed a white tail doe not a bone on the deer's head it's just not a buck it's a doe. And he had killed it though even want to do for a long time he killed with a recurve bow and so. He was going back to his roots, going back to kind of the early stages, early opportunities, changing the challenge up, making it difficult. And I just messaged him. I said, dude, that doe with that recurve bow, no sights on it, no special stuff, no fancy stuff, just a piece of wood and string. And I said, that doe will mean more to you than any buck you kill with a gun or anything else this season. Uh, you know, all the big bucks that come with the rifle, whatever, I promise you that, that, that doe with the recurve bow is going to be the highlight of your year. Just because he went back to his roots, went back to the old school way of doing things, increase that challenge. I'm not shooting out there at 30, 40, 50 yards and more. He said, I got to have that sucker right there at 10 yards. He did the deal. He got the deer in close. He knew what he was doing. Got in that deer's, uh, home. Got in there and bow range 10 yards to a wild white tail deer man. That's a challenge, but just going back to his roots, kind of changing up the game to make it where the challenge is renewed. It kind of sparks that passion again, but just takes it back to what we enjoy. You know, I've got a buddy that we see all these big bucks popping up and he was talking about the fact that everybody's after these big bucks but man he said you know it's a lot more fun back in the day when we were in late high school and getting into college and we just shoot whatever deer came by and we'd be ecstatic about it you know just a little old you know year and a half old buck two you know two year old deer whatever we didn't care what it was we just enjoyed the game enjoyed being out there and find the success and he said that he said man you know we're here sitting here chasing these big bucks now we got cell cameras everywhere we're uh trail cameras all over the place trying to document these big bucks and they're driving us crazy we get stressed out we're pulling our hair up we're worried about the neighbor shooting the deer all this stuff that goes on we're so stressed out about it he said man it was a whole lot more fun back in the day when we just enjoyed the hunt and that's what I tell folks just go back and maybe it means punching a tag on a On a buck you thought you'd never shoot again, just a young deer, whatever, just enjoy your hunt and just get back to the stuff that lit a fire back in the day.

Matt Harrison: Yep. And you made a really good point whenever you started talking right there. You said, find what makes you excited and find what lights that fire. You know, I feel like a lot of times hunters see other people and the way they hunt and what they enjoy and they're like, oh, I'm going to go do it the same exact way. Well, no. If that works for you and you enjoy it and you love it, okay, that's fine. But just because somebody does it a certain way, whether it be tactic, whether it be certain gear, whether it be whatever, it doesn't mean you have to do it the exact same way. Find what works best for you. Find what you enjoy. It may be like you said, where your favorite thing to do is just go walk, slap through the middle of the woods and shoot some squirrels during squirrel season. And if that's what you love, You know, then you got some people that squirrel hunt with dogs. You got some people that still squirrel hunt. You know, you got some people that use .22 caliber rifles. Well, you got some that use shotguns. Well, hey, look, whatever it is that you enjoy and you love and that makes you excited, do it. You know, do it. Find what you enjoy and you love. Don't feel like you have to follow somebody else whenever it comes to, well, okay, they did it exactly this way. You know, they hunted exactly this way. They use this exact thing. So I'm going to do it exactly. I feel like then you're doing it for the wrong reasons instead of just getting out there, doing what makes you excited and having a time that you'll look back on and enjoy.

Brodie Swisher: It goes back to, like I said, just the downside of social media. Everybody sees so-and-so out there doing this on YouTube and they They say, Hey, I want to do that too. And I want to be like that. I'm going to wear that same thing, shoot that same thing, go to that same spot, whatever it is. And if I do that Sarah hunt, man, you're not going to recreate that. I mean, yeah, you can go in and try to do that same thing. You can try to put your face paint on just like he does. She does whatever. Try to look like them, act like them, be like them. It's like, that's not what we're designed to do, man. You got to be your own dude, do your own thing. And just enjoy your hunt for what it is and make it your own. Make it your own because like I said, if we start trying to imitate everybody else and just get out there and do what they're doing, you're going to get frustrated real quick because you just see that little snippet. You just see that smiley, griffin grin photo on social media. You don't know what all went on behind the scenes to make that happen. And I think a lot of people are just naive to thinking that we can just do whatever we see on TV and, you know, see on social media and go out there and just try to imitate that and make that our deal. It's like, no, man, you got to make it your own and you get out there experiencing. And just again, The experience is where it's at and enjoying the ride, enjoying the journey. Um, so many, so many folks want to fast forward to the, to the gripping grin and they're missing out on all the good stuff. They're missing out on all the stuff that, that, that builds us and equips us. And it makes us a hunter, man. At the end of the day, uh, it's, it's that experience and the notches in the belt that it takes time. You know, you can't just say, I'm going to go out there. My first year, I want to shoot a one 60 for my first one. I'm like, dude, Go shoot you some doughs. Go shoot you some of them small bucks. Get some notches in your belt, if you will. Get that experience. So when the 160 comes out, you can say, hey, I've had some live targets in front of me. I've been able to learn how to deal with buck fever, whatever. So you don't just completely freak out when the opportunity comes. That comes with experience. You know, being able to handle that moment of truth. That comes with time, experience, and again, just putting your time in the woods.

Matt Harrison: When closing, Brodie, I know that we talked about how do we get back to our roots, but how would you encourage our listeners that are listening to the podcast right now, how would you encourage them to get back to what they enjoy, you know, and there's a lot of listeners out there that, hey, you know, they're, they're the type of hunters that they've enjoyed what they've done for the past 40 years and they will continue to do that. But there's, you know, some I'm sure that are listening that, you know, can, can listen to this podcast and say, you know, I probably have kind of gotten away a little bit from enjoying what I need to be enjoying. How would you encourage them to just kind of get back on track and get back to enjoying what first got them in the sport of hunting?

Brodie Swisher: Uh, again, I think going back with your equipment, kind of mixing things up. maybe setting a new challenge for yourself with your equipment. But you and I talked about it, the biggest thing to me to light a fire and somebody getting back to their roots is to help someone new establish their roots. And it works for both of you because you're taking a newcomer along on the side, maybe a little kid from church, your neighbor down the street, they've never been. And you're going to see real quick as you take them on their first turkey hunt, it takes you back to your first turkey. And as you start teaching them about the basic stuff and talking to them in a way that, that beginner level stuff that they need to know, you're going to realize, man, it takes you back to when you were on your first turkey hunt, duck hunt, deer hunt, whatever it is, by passing it on and teaching the next generation, you're going to step back to your roots. You're going to step back to your first time, your first experience, your first deer, duck, turkey, whatever it is. And so that's probably the biggest thing I think we can all do and we all win from that. When you go back to your roots, help someone establish their roots, man you step back in time, you remember some great memories, but again at the same time we're passing it on and that newcomer comes alongside and they've got a mentor, they get somebody that's been down that road that's teaching them and passing that wisdom and experience onto them. So I think that's one of the biggest things we can do to get back to our roots is to help someone, a family member, friend, whoever, establish their roots. And again, it's just a win-win for everybody when we take that time and get someone out there.

Matt Harrison: Well, Brodie, we cannot thank you enough for taking some time to join the Ducks Unlimited podcast and offer your insights. It was awesome getting to spend some time with you. And we also want to thank our podcast producer, Mr. Chris Isaac, for taking the time to facilitate this. And we also want to thank our Ducks Unlimited podcast listeners for tuning in to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. Thank you all so much. Y'all tune in again and take care and God bless.