Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Seth Chapman: 00:01

Be humble enough to say I'm I'm learning a waterfowl. I don't know a lot yet. I learn every day. Like, I can't blow a spec call to save my life. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 00:09

Try it. Right? Yeah. But Which which is

Wade Shoemaker: 00:11

which is out of character for somebody from the area you're from.

Seth Chapman: 00:14

That's right. Right? Yeah. Was a duck hunter. I was never a goose hunter.

VO: 00:21

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.

VO: 00:51

Enjoy responsibly.

Wade Shoemaker: 00:59

Hey, folks. Welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. I'm your host, Wade Shoemaker. And today, I've got a pal with me. He's a business owner slash duck hunter slash shadow grass lover.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:09

I wore my shirt for him, and apparently, he he already knew the deal because he's got his own slash influencer slash husband and dad. And honestly, there's a lot of slashes that he keep drawing. But mister Seth Chapman, dude, how how are you doing in this Louisiana heat? I know I sweated through socks yesterday, so I know you gotta be out there getting after it.

Seth Chapman: 01:29

Yeah. What's up, man? Thank you Wade so much for having me. It is hot. It is it is peak season right now.

Seth Chapman: 01:36

I'm on my second change of clothes today. I spoke at a I spoke at an event this morning for a for a group of, like, 75 realtors, and it was hot in the building. I was like, Jesus, I'm not taking care of the air conditioner over here, obviously.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:50

How do you

Seth Chapman: 01:51

not have to dress with my pants and my boots and look I mean, look, I'm in shorts and shadow grass now. This is how this is I

Wade Shoemaker: 01:56

drift every

Seth Chapman: 01:56

day. So, yeah, it's hot, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:58

I love it, man. I love it. So, Seth, man, you you I I guess we could slash public speaker into that too, you know, like, you might as well go ahead and do it. But I wanna introduce the people to you as, like, from a behind the scenes thing. You've got we've got Chapman's HVAC, or Chapman's HVAC.

Wade Shoemaker: 02:17

I'm not sure how you kinda put that out there.

Seth Chapman: 02:18

Oh, anyone.

Wade Shoemaker: 02:19

Any one of them. And then and then Perry Outfitters, which I I I want people to yeah. I want you to tell people about this thing. But but first, man, I just wanna say it's really good to to let our people meet you. I mean, great to see you again as always, but but tell us about yourself, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 02:33

Like, you know, where are you from? Your your family? I know you just put your baby down for a nap. Like, like, those are the kind of things that I love to hear about, but if you don't mind, man, just give us a little bit.

Seth Chapman: 02:43

Yeah, absolutely. So this is this is a cool story. I Originally, I was born and raised my first three years of my life in Pecan Island, Louisiana. It is what pretty much every duck hunter in the world knows as one of the best duck hunting places in Louisiana. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 02:59

You know, as I got older, you're you live far from everything. Walmart was thirty five, forty minutes, you know, maybe fifty minutes. Right? We used to when I was little, we would have to bring our food back in an ice chest so the milk wouldn't spoil. You know, gradually over the years, I moved a little bit more north and a little bit more north, but for Kona, I was home.

Seth Chapman: 03:18

Right? I was I was displaced from Esther, Louisiana, where I would say I actually grew up the majority of my early child years, from Hurricane Rita. We lost our house in Hurricane Rita, so we moved about twenty minutes north. It doesn't flood where I live now. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 03:36

And that that's that's where I reside. I reside in Maurice, Louisiana, forty five minutes from Pocoon Island, thirty minutes from my Camp Master, where where I primarily hunt, you know, locally at. And yeah, man, that's that's that's the story from from where I'm from and how I ended up forty five minutes from Pokhorn Island.

Wade Shoemaker: 03:55

Yeah. I guess I guess I didn't realize that you were you were an Esther to begin with. Tell us about I mean, Esther, you got displaced, I guess, because of, you you said the hurricane.

Seth Chapman: 04:05

Yeah. We lost our house with a hurricane.

Wade Shoemaker: 04:07

What was what was Esther like?

Seth Chapman: 04:09

Oh, man. Just a quiet, nice, small, little community. I don't know. There might have been there might have been a 100 people that lived in Esther compared Pecan Island was such a larger community, you know, in the early nineties.

Wade Shoemaker: 04:19

That's crazy.

Seth Chapman: 04:20

Yeah. It really was. You know, Esther didn't have a school. You went to, you know, Abbeville schools or whatever, but Pekwon Island had a high school and and all those things. So Pekwon Island was a much bigger community.

Seth Chapman: 04:30

It was just a lot farther than than Esther was, you know, it's thirty minutes from Esther. So I lived in Esther until 2005 when hurricane Rita hit. Mhmm. You know, everybody lost their house down there. So picked our house up

Wade Shoemaker: 04:41

That's tough.

Seth Chapman: 04:42

Floated it down the road, and we moved to Maurice where it doesn't flood, and that's where I've resided ever since. It's just hard hard to live down there, you know, anticipating the next hurricane entrance, crazy.

Wade Shoemaker: 04:53

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 04:54

So that yeah. That's that's where I'm at, and I spend as much time as I can in Peculina and Nestor.

Wade Shoemaker: 04:59

Sure. Sure. Well, how so when y'all landed in MREs, did you land there because it just felt right, it made sense, or because you just knew you wouldn't gonna have to worry about a flood?

Seth Chapman: 05:08

Yeah. It was it was the the only house available anywhere around here, right? So my my stepmom, she's been my stepmom for twenty twenty years. Yeah. Her her family was from Maurice, so we all lost our house down there, and we relocated to a little rent house that they had in the family.

Seth Chapman: 05:25

We lived there and just, you know, planting my roots. I made friends over here. I still always went to the same school. The school is about midway point between Esther and Maurice. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 05:34

I went to Vermain Catholic down there in Haverville. Oh. So I've always just yeah. We stayed here. It's just it's easy, you know.

Seth Chapman: 05:41

We're we're twenty minutes from Lafayette. We're not in The the traffic isn't bad. It's just a nice area. I

Wade Shoemaker: 05:46

like it. I like that, dude. And I I never knew that. It's cool to know. So this is me out of curiosity, this wasn't supposed to be it's actually not in my notes, so I'm just trying to figure that out.

Wade Shoemaker: 05:54

I like I like it, man. But you had a Maurice, you know, a while back, and then you decided that you were gonna do something for yourself and Chapman's HVAC and then

Seth Chapman: 06:04

That's right.

Wade Shoemaker: 06:05

And then at some point, this Perry's out Perry's Outfitters thing came about. Like, so when how did you get started? I mean, obviously, it's hot, so you're like, man, everybody needs some air conditioning. You know, like, that makes sense. But how did how did you get started with Chapman's HVAC?

Wade Shoemaker: 06:18

And then and I wanna roll into Perry's, but and I'm assuming Perry's came after Chapman's.

Seth Chapman: 06:23

Perry's came after. Yeah. Perry's came in 2023. Chapman's was in '16.

Wade Shoemaker: 06:27

Okay. Okay. It's a it's

Seth Chapman: 06:28

a great story, man. It was one of those where, like, in high school, I wasn't I wasn't the most academically ready kid, like, you know, that wasn't that wasn't my thing, man. I I I struggled through high school. I just wanted to get out. I wanted to get out.

Seth Chapman: 06:43

I knew I knew I wasn't going to college. So my dad says, you know, Seth, you gotta you gotta go further your education in something. He said, pick a trade. He said, I don't want you to weld. Everybody welds.

Seth Chapman: 06:53

He's like, go Yeah. Or do plumbing, electrical, HVAC, something something, you know, anything like that. I was like, man, air conditioning sounds cool, you know, because I I remember sitting with this with this old man in a little restaurant called Park Restaurant in Alvinville, and he was like, was he air conditioned man. He was like, yo, son, he's like, you like to hunt? I was like, man, love to hunt.

Seth Chapman: 07:11

That's like my favorite thing. He was like, well, you can do all the hunting you want during the winter because there's no work. And I was like, no kidding. No. He's like, gotta make all your money during the summer, and you can take off all winter.

Seth Chapman: 07:20

He's like, gotta save it though. So I was like, that sounds cool. You know, I go to school for air conditioning.

Wade Shoemaker: 07:25

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 07:26

So my dad put me through air conditioning school. Year and a half program, I graduated from that, and I immediately went to the workforce. I was I was 19, you know, out working. I worked a little residential job for about, you know, a year, and then I was like, I want more out of this. I wanted to go offshore

Wade Shoemaker: 07:44

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 07:44

In the off field. So doing air conditioning though. You know, most people don't realize that all these platforms have just as many air conditions as they do in their houses, you know, you gotta stay cool out there. So I would do that, I would bounce around platform to platform, working on air conditions, and it was nice during the winter because it would slow down, I'd get to haunt all winter. Did that for four years until 2016 rolled around in the downturn of the oil field, and I got laid off.

Seth Chapman: 08:09

I I did the only thing I knew how to do, that was clean units and change capacitors.

Wade Shoemaker: 08:13

Yeah. And

Seth Chapman: 08:14

I started I just, you know, advertised on Facebook, and I started started Chapman's. I got called to go back to work after like four months, and I was like, I think I'm a quit, man. I think I'm gonna do this

Wade Shoemaker: 08:24

for a And

Seth Chapman: 08:27

so it and it's worked out. That was ten years ago. Yeah. Ten years and thirty trucks and 100 hundreds of employees throughout the years, but we got

Wade Shoemaker: 08:35

40 crazy.

Seth Chapman: 08:36

40 employees right now.

VO: 08:37

Welcome to the Old Timer Minute, sponsored by Old Timer Knives.

VO: 08:42

Alright. This probably isn't a good lesson, but it's the one that I think about. It's kind of actually kind of funny that I think about all the time. So my brother who is probably I guess he's about 4.5, five years older than me. When we would hunt when I was younger, and this is probably up I think I was probably, like, in high school, I guess, when this happened.

VO: 09:01

But he would shoot in front of me all the time, and I used to get so mad. I would get so mad because he would always, the ducks would be coming in, and he would shoot just a tiny bit early so that so that he got to kill more ducks than me. Finally, he was like, Katie, you play basketball? And I was like, what? And he was like, yeah.

VO: 09:19

You gotta block out. You can't just, like, wait for your good shot. You gotta block out. So I think of that all the time when I like, when you wanna get the duck that you want, you gotta make sure you get out there first.

VO: 09:31

Visit the oldtimer.com.

Wade Shoemaker: 09:33

So it was it was just you and do like, you know, you got out of school, you did your own thing, you sort it by yourself, one truck, you know, about 18 capacitors, and a and a tool bag.

Seth Chapman: 09:42

And a tool bag. Yeah. I 23 years old, I had very little residential knowledge. All my knowledge was all four. So I just kinda I winged it, you know, I faded till I made it.

Seth Chapman: 09:51

And Yeah. It it it just eventually worked out. I I would say that my my eagerness to be in front of people, I grew a social media following on Instagram in 2012. So I was I was used to posting and engaging with people, it so just kinda carried over to customer service.

Wade Shoemaker: 10:09

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 10:10

I I was always real big in in meeting people, and talking to people, and finding out their problems, and fixing them. Yeah. And so that's that's what started Chapman's, was just, you know, I had no other option. I was Yeah. I had to make it.

Wade Shoemaker: 10:22

You couldn't lose. The only option was to, yeah, not go back. I love that, man. And then, so, you know, 16, you start that, and then you've got what, four, three, seven years later, you decide, alright. Well, we need to start we need to do this Perry's, that Perry's Outfitters thing, or Perry Outfitters, and and it's not for people listening, like, it's not a hunting outfit.

Wade Shoemaker: 10:40

Like, this is this is a store. Yeah. This is a store. This is I would say this is like a like a general store or

Seth Chapman: 10:47

It is. It's perfect. Kind of

Wade Shoemaker: 10:47

basic thing.

Seth Chapman: 10:48

Yeah. A general store without gas. It's a convenience store without gas that happens to sell lacrosse and all the major hunting brands, you know?

Wade Shoemaker: 10:55

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 10:56

Turtle Box and a big turtle

Wade Shoemaker: 10:57

I think it's cool. I think it's cool for like, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but like Yeah. The store and what it is and where it's at to have access to these brands, that's not something normally you would find in No. Like a a general store. So anyway, go ahead.

Wade Shoemaker: 11:09

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Seth Chapman: 11:10

No. You're good. I so this was a guy this was a convenience store that was already established. They started probably around 2015, and it was a good business. It was my my favorite and most convenient place to stop on my way to the camp.

Seth Chapman: 11:24

If I was going to to Esther or Percon Island, you stop in the morning, get your Red Bull, whatever. No, get your biscuit, maybe some lacrosse boots, or maybe a box of shells on the shelf that was sitting there for, you know, half the year.

Wade Shoemaker: 11:35

Had some dust on them.

Seth Chapman: 11:36

Yeah. You know, there was there was more of a fishing store for them than it was hunting. They carried some boots and some shells, that's about it.

Wade Shoemaker: 11:42

Yeah. They had them they had they had white boots though, more

Seth Chapman: 11:45

than You're three right. You stop and you get the the greasy boot in, you know, a hot a hot link or something. So this one day, I saw this store go up for sale, it was closing. I was like, man, this is my favorite store. I was like, I gotta go out of the way, like, this sucks.

Seth Chapman: 12:01

Yeah. It was like, it hurt me because I was like, oh, I supported this place and why can't everybody else support it, you know? So I talked to the owner, was good friends with her, and she was like, know, Seth, I'm I'm closing it down, it's not working out for me. I was like, no, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, you know, the price was at a certain point and didn't sell, so the price came down, and it didn't sell.

Seth Chapman: 12:19

And it was on the market for maybe a year or two years. And August '23, I drove by one day and the sign was still up. So I went to look it up on Facebook and it was a very attracting price. I was like, I don't know how to run a gas station or

Wade Shoemaker: 12:34

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 12:34

Convenience store. I called my bank and I was like, hey, wanna buy this. And he's like, you mind the business or the store? Was like, well, the business is shut down. They got some inventory inside.

Seth Chapman: 12:43

He was like, alright, you know, here's what you gotta put down, and thankfully, my air conditioning business has sustained me enough that I was able to save a little money over the years. So I bought the place. And I opened it I opened it in a month, and I knew that I wanted to be, like, a little tiny mini Simmons.

Wade Shoemaker: 12:59

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 13:00

You know, Simmons doesn't have gas, but they have everything. Right?

Wade Shoemaker: 13:03

Yeah. They do. So

Seth Chapman: 13:05

I knew that I was like, if I can offer that to Vermillion Parish, I was going it was it was inevitable it was gonna succeed. So started working with the brands, and now I'm already kinda like getting getting pretty big into the hunting industry. Like, around when I started Chapman's, I was able to devote so much more time to hunting and social media. I really grew my hunting following. I was working with a couple brands here and there.

Seth Chapman: 13:28

So I had contacts, and I was like, I want cool things in this store.

Wade Shoemaker: 13:32

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 13:32

And I wasn't I'm look, I'm not a huge fisherman. Really, I devote everything to waterfowl, so I had to get people to help me with the correct fishing things to put in there.

Wade Shoemaker: 13:40

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 13:40

Yeah. And then it started Perry, and it blew up. It we I don't know. We see a 150 to 230 customers a day, every day.

Wade Shoemaker: 13:51

That's strong. That's Invermeli Invermeliers, That's strong.

Seth Chapman: 13:54

Yeah. And that's just people going to work. Hunting season is nuts. We sell hunting and fishing licenses, every major brand of shell, just some good you know, I'm a direct lacrosse dealer, so like I don't have

Wade Shoemaker: 14:06

to get

Seth Chapman: 14:06

them through third party. I'm there's there's not a whole lot of those guys. You gotta be a big one, and I'm such I'm a thousand square feet. Yeah. I have like the store is jam packed.

Wade Shoemaker: 14:15

Yeah. It's You

Seth Chapman: 14:17

know, every rifle round you really need, all the common ones, all the shotguns, the 20, the lacrosse, the turtle boxes, all the big hunting brands that I can that I can fit in there, I do.

Wade Shoemaker: 14:27

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 14:27

And yeah. And that that actually prompted me to open up another one. So I opened up Island Bait and Tackle, but if something doesn't work out, it's better to get rid of it before it fails, and Island the traffic for Island was very low. So I opened up island in '24, and I'm actually selling it right now.

Wade Shoemaker: 14:44

Oh, okay.

Seth Chapman: 14:45

I'm getting rid of it. It look, it's a great store, but I don't sell hot food at it. And hot food is what attracts the customer. I was like, I'll just do a spin off of Perry.

Wade Shoemaker: 14:54

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 14:55

So two of them back to back is a lot to juggle.

Wade Shoemaker: 14:58

Well, and then it's it's mostly fishing, that's not your passion, and it's, you know, I think, you know, you can kinda see when you start, like, stretching yourself out, like, what worth is

Seth Chapman: 15:07

Yeah. That's good. Yeah. It's not worth the headache, I'm a I'm a let it go.

Wade Shoemaker: 15:11

No. No. No. And if you find somebody that wants to put a hot box in there, like

Seth Chapman: 15:14

That's it.

Wade Shoemaker: 15:15

You'll be fine. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 15:16

Yeah. It needed it needed a new septic system and all of the rigmarole, you know. So he was like, man, I'll spend the money on it. I already built the brand. The brand's there.

Seth Chapman: 15:24

I mean, the logos, the Facebook pages, everybody knows where it's at, but the traffic's not there yet. So if they have a return to stop for hot food, it's gonna do amazing. Introduce something.

Wade Shoemaker: 15:33

Okay. I got it. I got it. Very cool, man. I love that.

Wade Shoemaker: 15:36

And and I so I've never personally been into Perry's because I don't I don't just run down to Vermillion Parish, you know, just like on a whim. But, like, I've seen pictures. I've seen the videos. I've seen the the promotions you do with it, and I'm just sitting there looking at it like this is such a cool place. How how old is the store?

Wade Shoemaker: 15:52

Do you know? The store was the original Perry liquor store. Yeah. The store

Seth Chapman: 15:58

So I have a and they call it the liquor store as a barf. So like my elevated cashier's area was the stage. It was it's like a a, I don't know, a a four by 10 stage where they set up their drones maybe and play. So the store is the store goes back to the fifties, the main show. And it's been added on to, you know, stuff here and there, burnt wood floor with the torch, and so it's it's real rustic, and it's homey.

Seth Chapman: 16:22

You know? Everything's tight. Yeah. It it it's a cool place to go.

Wade Shoemaker: 16:25

Yeah. I dig that. Man, I knew it I knew it wasn't something that just was there when you were younger. Like, it it had to be a little older than that.

Seth Chapman: 16:31

Oh, yeah. It's a lot older. My it's that place where my grandpa went to a bar. You know? That's what's so cool about it.

Wade Shoemaker: 16:36

That he was sick, dude.

Seth Chapman: 16:38

He would sit over there.

Wade Shoemaker: 16:39

I love that. So so now that we're there, you I would say I have I have the word cruising here in my notes. Like, you've built, you know, these things and they're cruising, but cruising is really not the right word because I feel like that would kind of insinuate somebody that's comfortable, somebody just hit cruise control and let it ride. And knowing what I know about you, I just I don't see sitting still as a thing for you. You know?

Wade Shoemaker: 17:00

And I and I, you know, I feel like that was accurate, but I'd love to sort for you to sort of give us a run through of, like yeah. We know there's there's I think you said, like, 40 employees, 30 trucks at Chapman's now, and then Perry's a thousand square foot, all the major hunting brands. But give us sort of a run through of what that looks like on your on on a day to day of like a a 30 truck, 40 employee HVAC company, and then a thousand square foot store with a 150 people coming through a day.

Seth Chapman: 17:28

Yeah. I I would love to, man. So I can tell you the store a lot of people would think the store is is difficult. The store is my stress reliever. Like, I go over there to get away.

Seth Chapman: 17:36

I go fill my ATM. I drink a I drink a ghost, you know? Yeah. That's the place I go to to like, oh, man, I can breathe. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 17:44

Chapman's Chapman's is an ammo of its own. Now I will say, over the over the years, I've put people in place to handle the stuff that that I don't see every day. I have service managers, commercial residential installers, office managers, HR. I I got, you know, a whole office staff, plus all the guys, 30 trucks. What it consists of is a lot of sheetrock repair.

Seth Chapman: 18:05

We stepped through some fingernails. We I

Wade Shoemaker: 18:08

was about to say, wait, what? Okay. Yeah. That makes sense.

Seth Chapman: 18:11

It's hot. The guys are disoriented. They hit their head. They step through. Van and Happens.

Seth Chapman: 18:15

I think we had, like, nine ceiling repairs last month. So it's a lot, dude. It is it is so much. One of my guys accidentally dropped his drill, and you would think the insulation would have stopped it. Nope.

Seth Chapman: 18:27

Straight through the sheetrock. I was like, that's just the look of the drill. Drill? Although yeah. Just an impact.

Seth Chapman: 18:32

Like, a Milwaukee impact straight

Wade Shoemaker: 18:34

through. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 18:35

I guess he had a big battery on it. So, man, the day to day operations, like, typically, I'm I'm at Chapman's every day. I'm at Chapman's five days a week. My my I'm the brand ambassador.

Wade Shoemaker: 18:48

Pulled myself

Seth Chapman: 18:49

out of every role. My role is the Chapman's brand ambassador. It's for everybody to know who I am and be in front of everybody and know that if they're calling Chapman's, they're getting me every single one of my employees, which is also hard because they're their own individual people. They they all have a chance every day to misrepresent me or Chapman's AC and then I have to fix it. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 19:13

That's the most stressful part, is putting your name. That's why a lot of companies name it like Cool Air, or I named it Chapman's, and I wanted it to be a direct reflection of me, And if if somebody messes up, I'm the one that has to be held accountable and make sure I make it right.

Wade Shoemaker: 19:30

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 19:31

So that's a big reason I think we've gone this far, this fast is because I'm habitually on my phone. I am answering tags. Chapman's AC, thank you so much. I love it. You know, I'm I'm the one answering the thousands of Google reviews, the bad ones

Wade Shoemaker: 19:45

that go with them.

Seth Chapman: 19:47

Just a lot of mitigation. So I knew that whenever I pulled myself out of Chapman's enough, I could start other things, and that's what made me start Perry. So Perry has its own manager. Perry and Island have the same manager, so it's real easy to manage Island. They handle everything from ordering the all the drinks.

Seth Chapman: 20:08

I typically handle the hunting brands because that's, you know, that's my thing. Like, I know Yeah. I know it's cool. I know it's out there. I know what people wanna see.

Seth Chapman: 20:16

So that is pretty difficult, is always making sure I have the things in the store. Yeah. Unless I would hire somebody just like me, but I was like, it's my it's my stress reliever. I get to go over there and enjoy it, and meet customers, and hang out with the people who are shopping with us. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 20:32

Do a couple checkouts every so often.

Wade Shoemaker: 20:34

Love it. How often do you how often are you in Perry's? Like, five days at away. Perry

Seth Chapman: 20:38

three to four days a week.

Wade Shoemaker: 20:40

Okay. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 20:41

Yeah. I make I make an appearance there almost every day. Chapman's five days a week. I work for Chapman seven days a week, and then Perry, I'm I'm I'm over there a lot because it's always on the route to my camp. So no matter what, I go to my camp once a week.

Seth Chapman: 20:57

It's only thirty minutes from home.

Wade Shoemaker: 20:58

So Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 20:59

Yeah. I I don't have to be at Perry. I've gone I've gone weeks without going to Perry before, and it Yeah. Handled you just fine. But I like to be there.

Seth Chapman: 21:07

It's it's my fun store.

Wade Shoemaker: 21:09

You dig that, but I like that. Do you so you say you like going over that stress reliever for you. You end up do you feel like because you're able to kind of immerse yourself in, like, the hunting stuff where you're just Yeah. You're able to look back and go, okay, what's cool, what's new, what can I bring in, what do I need to, like, chill out with? Gotta get to make those decisions and feel like you're in a in a different place.

Seth Chapman: 21:28

I'm seeing what's selling and what isn't selling, and, you know, always people always like, man, Seth, why don't you you know, I have I have hunting land. They're like, don't you start an actual outfitter? I'm like, I feel like it would ruin hunting for me. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 21:39

It would I don't

Seth Chapman: 21:40

want to have the pressure on me to not have birds or have so I said, I would rather have a store that supplies people to go hunting Yeah. To where it doesn't ruin the game for me. They don't kill nothing. It's not my fault. They come back, they get a biscuit.

Wade Shoemaker: 21:52

No? Yeah. They come back and tell you, they didn't even buy them. They they didn't even buy them shotgun shell. They didn't use them.

Wade Shoemaker: 21:58

You know? That's funny, dude. I like that. No. That's good.

Wade Shoemaker: 22:01

And then get a biscuit and tell you about it. That's cool. So what is with that, you you you've been scaling. You've been growing it. You you kinda you know the day to day.

Wade Shoemaker: 22:10

What does the what's the future look like? Do you have I know you've thought about it. Maybe you don't have, you know, an answer you wanna give us, but with Chapman's, is it to is it to sustain it? Is it to grow it? Is it is it where it needs to be?

Wade Shoemaker: 22:21

You know, because it's not always a good idea to grow. You know? Maybe it's always a better idea to stay and just sustain, but it could be. And then parries, is there a, you know, is there a is there a 1,200 foot Perry's coming? You know?

Wade Shoemaker: 22:32

I don't I don't know.

Seth Chapman: 22:33

Yeah, man. No. You you it's so funny you asked that question. I'll hit on Chapman's first. My my my idea with Chapman's was never to be this big.

Seth Chapman: 22:41

Yeah. But it's inevitable whenever you pour everything into taking care of people, you know? And what I mean by taking care of people is I take care of my employees, and the employees take care of the customers. So I don't have to take care of the customers directly because there's too many of them. There's 12,000 of them.

Seth Chapman: 22:57

GG. But if I take care of my employees, I know that they're happy and they're gonna take care of Chapman's, and then the Chapman's employees, and that continuously grows and grows and grows. We get so busy, they're like, man, we need help. We're tired. Okay.

Seth Chapman: 23:10

I'll go buy a truck and I'll get some help. That has snowballed, took 30 trucks. And, you know, it's a lot of fuel, it's a lot of payroll, but it's not even about the numbers, I like employing people now. Yeah. And that that's really what has led me to this size.

Seth Chapman: 23:25

I'm the fastest growing air conditioning company, likely likely in Southwest Louisiana within this ten year period. Nobody is my size. Mhmm. And that's because the amount of work and mitigation it takes to make these customers happy, most people don't wanna put that in. Is Oh, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 23:42

It it's so hard to manage

Seth Chapman: 23:44

It's so hard.

Wade Shoemaker: 23:44

That big of a group. I mean, managing people is one thing. Managing 40 is another. Yeah. And that's

Seth Chapman: 23:50

Everybody has personalities. They all have problems at home.

Wade Shoemaker: 23:53

And that's it, dude. You've gotta manage personalities as much as you have to manage talent. Like, I would say personality before talent because

Seth Chapman: 23:59

I can teach air conditioning to anybody, but you can't teach work ethic. That's that's

Wade Shoemaker: 24:03

No. Gonna be No.

Seth Chapman: 24:05

I like So

Wade Shoemaker: 24:06

moving so what does that look like? Like, you are you gonna continue to grow that?

Seth Chapman: 24:10

I'm gonna continue growing. Yeah. Like, right now, I need three more install trucks on the road.

Wade Shoemaker: 24:14

Wow. How many

Seth Chapman: 24:15

more per

Wade Shoemaker: 24:15

truck? Two?

Seth Chapman: 24:16

And my and my guys are like, Seth, we're burnt out. We're two weeks backed up with no end in sight. And I'm like, well, I guess my salesmen are good. Right? You know?

Seth Chapman: 24:24

Yeah. Can't be bad. They're outselling the installers, so I need more I need more installers to get on the roads. That means at least three more trucks, at least six more guys, that's typically what happens. I only grow you know, I go up to them and I say, what can I do to what can I do to better help you today?

Seth Chapman: 24:41

And they're like, hey, we need another truck on the road. Alright.

Wade Shoemaker: 24:43

That's cool.

Seth Chapman: 24:44

Let's get with the manager, let's get a truck.

Wade Shoemaker: 24:45

That's so it is two per truck, two people per truck?

Seth Chapman: 24:48

Yeah. Two uninstall crews, two per truck. Service is one per truck.

Wade Shoemaker: 24:52

Yeah. Okay. Very cool.

Seth Chapman: 24:54

I like that. I'm gonna keep growing. I'm just gonna keep putting out cool merchandise. I guess the Chapman Shadow Grass shirt, I gave Yeah. You know, 300 of them away.

Seth Chapman: 25:02

It's branding, man. I'm I'm the branding thing. Like, that's people have to know who to call.

Wade Shoemaker: 25:07

I like that. And so when you say grow, are you I mean, you have a target number? Are you looking at 30 trucks, 50 trucks, forty, eighty people? Honestly,

Seth Chapman: 25:17

I wanna be the biggest air conditioning company in the area. There's only one company bigger than me and they've been open seventy five years. Yeah. It's not that I want to be bigger than them, I just want to service so many people that inevitably, we we end up the biggest. And I know that takes a lot of a lot of a lot of teamwork and a lot of team players.

Seth Chapman: 25:36

Right now, my my next goal, my two year goal is 40 trucks. So I have 30, I wanna get 10 more trucks in two years. Five trucks a year, should be doable. We're growing the commercial side, the marine side, the new construction side.

Wade Shoemaker: 25:49

I just see. That's that's different. Are you talking about subcultures of HVAC now?

Seth Chapman: 25:52

Yeah. Yeah. Everything. We we have a whole commercial division. We have a marine division where we go out to these tugboats, these vessels, these yachts, and we work on their stuff at ports.

Seth Chapman: 26:04

Wherever they can pull up to, we'll go to Fuchon, Venice, Houma, and go work on their boats over there.

Wade Shoemaker: 26:09

Yeah. Okay.

Seth Chapman: 26:10

No offshore division yet. I'm not a I I did offshore for a long time, and honestly, it's not a huge income producer compared to the risk and the insurance.

Wade Shoemaker: 26:18

Yeah. Well, when you put you put eggs in that basket, man, it could be one one downturn and all of it, you know? So,

Seth Chapman: 26:24

yeah, I want I want 40 trucks. That's the next goal. Cool.

Wade Shoemaker: 26:28

That's a good one. Yeah. That's cool, man. So I mean, so we're looking at that. Now Perry's, so what are we looking at with Perry's?

Seth Chapman: 26:34

Man, that's that's my big one. I I just bought a city block across the street from Perry Outfitters.

Wade Shoemaker: 26:41

Okay.

Seth Chapman: 26:41

It was it was for sale for a very long time. Perry is a poor community. Very nothing appraises for anything. It's a very it's a I'm gonna call it a dying community. It's wonderful people, but it's not thriving because there's nothing there.

Wade Shoemaker: 26:53

Right. It's like a like a sawmill town where the sawmill left.

Seth Chapman: 26:56

Exactly. It was thriving at one point now, you know, we get our local traffic. There's not a whole lot of revenue generators in Perry. So my my next goal is a big Perry Outfitters. I I bought a city block and I wanna build a gas station.

Seth Chapman: 27:10

I wanna build a big hunting store, like, I'm thinking 100 by 100 metal building tall, a loft with a little kitchen in the back, kinda like Simmons, you know?

Wade Shoemaker: 27:21

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or something

Seth Chapman: 27:22

like that, six gas pumps, a place for all the people with big Freedmans and yellow fence to pull in, fill up their boats, and then continue on down to the boat ramp that's in Intracoastal City. My my hope is that one day something big happens in Intracoastal or Pecan Island that that Perry can capitalize on this, and I can supply people with food, guns. I wanna sell guns. I don't have my FFL. I wanna do big stuff out of it.

Seth Chapman: 27:48

That's my next

Wade Shoemaker: 27:48

could you could probably figure that out, dude. I like that. So what and you keep mentioning Simmons, and people don't know Simmons is a store in Northeast Louisiana in Bastrop, but it's one of the coolest stores, I think Yeah. As far as it's the one of the coolest stores in the country as far as I'm concerned. Like, it looks cool.

Wade Shoemaker: 28:04

Yeah. It feels cool. It's got everything. It's huge. But with that, like, you want something on that level.

Wade Shoemaker: 28:12

What do you and this is just me because I think I think this way, but like, the the thousand square foot Perry's, what happens to that?

Seth Chapman: 28:20

Yeah. I'll I might turn into a drive through daiquiri place to all of

Wade Shoemaker: 28:24

our people not moving in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Louisiana got drive through daiquiri.

Wade Shoemaker: 28:28

Place, dude. Oh, yeah. I love it, man. I love that.

Seth Chapman: 28:31

Gotta keep the tape over the stronghold, but

Wade Shoemaker: 28:33

That's right.

Seth Chapman: 28:34

Yeah. I mean, the building's not going anywhere. I own the three adjacent corners. I bought a old gas station that

Wade Shoemaker: 28:40

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 28:40

I just bought to secure myself, really. I wanted to turn into a gas station, but the traffic flow isn't correct for a gas Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 28:49

Yeah. Could be, though.

Seth Chapman: 28:50

It could be. Yeah. So I bought the thing across the street, a whole city block. I have full roads surrounding it. I just wanna be able to supply everything to you know, I want people to come in and be able to buy all their right now, I can't put decoys in a store.

Seth Chapman: 29:02

Like, I'm so jam packed. I have I have a couple decoys here and there, and I got a lot of the motion decoys, pulsators, Jopu. I got those in the store, but people can't come buy six packs or 12 packs

Wade Shoemaker: 29:13

Yeah. Of decoys.

Seth Chapman: 29:14

So all my beer coolers are reach in coolers. Right? I want, like, I want a beer dungeon. I wanna

Wade Shoemaker: 29:20

walk Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 29:22

That's really what my goal is for this. I just wanna build something big enough, and then I can turn Perry into a daiquiri store. Who knows?

Wade Shoemaker: 29:30

I love it, dude. Yeah. I love it. Louisiana's a cool place when you when you look around a little bit.

Seth Chapman: 29:34

Yeah. Absolutely.

Wade Shoemaker: 29:36

I dig it. But, look, I wanna I wanna I've got some questions here, and I'm and I I think we're gonna kinda live here for a little bit. You know, I I know, you know, this is this is one talk about some ducks, and you are a South Louisiana living in moss y oak, shatter grass, loving duck hunter. Right? Like Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 29:52

You are. And I I mean, you the crazy part for me and that and this is something maybe a lot of people don't maybe I'm maybe I'm just thinking this because all my buddies in South Louisiana, most of them, they they fit they've they were fishing before they were hunting. Right? Just because the all the water just it's easier to fish than it is to hunt. And for you to be more hunting and fishing, not saying that's not that's uncommon, but like, the most of the people that I know down there, that is.

Wade Shoemaker: 30:15

It's it's the other way around. And I think it's very cool that you're a duck hunter over fisher. And look, I'm I'm I'm saying these things out loud, I don't want people to think that I think you gotta be a duck hunter before a fisherman, but, like, I am. You know? So to have somebody else that's that way, I love it.

VO: 30:38

Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.

Wade Shoemaker: 30:53

When did you start, like, hunting? Maybe it wasn't duck hunting. Maybe it was you you were squirrel hunting. I don't know. But when did you start hunting?

Wade Shoemaker: 31:01

Like, how do

Seth Chapman: 31:01

work? It was duck hunting, man. I remember my dad took me duck hunting when I was six for the first time.

Wade Shoemaker: 31:06

Yeah. So you started hunting when you were about six years old. But does that you you said your dad took you. Was that a generational thing? Like, your your grandpa did it, your dad did it, your great grandpa.

Wade Shoemaker: 31:15

I don't know how that works. Like, because I yeah. I just wanna hear how how far back does this go. You know?

Seth Chapman: 31:20

Yeah, man. So my it it go it goes it goes very far back, and it goes back to the to the time of when they when they literally went out with one or two shells to hunt for food. Yeah. So my dad was raised and lived with his grandmother, which is my great grandmother. Okay.

Seth Chapman: 31:37

And there's a small community down here that some people will know, some people won't. It's called Chinateague, Louisiana. Yep. It is it is on the beach. It is only accessible by boat, very small community.

Seth Chapman: 31:49

I've heard

Wade Shoemaker: 31:49

of this. I've never

Seth Chapman: 31:51

It's great, man. I I and there's a book about it and everything. So my my great grandmother, my dad's grandmother, grew up out there. She was born in 1918, and they they had to be self sufficient. There was no electricity, no running water.

Seth Chapman: 32:02

They hunted. So eventually, as times went on, the the old resort got shut down in maybe the forties, and they all moved to the Mainland. My dad was born in '68, so my dad grew up with my great grandmother, and living on the farm that I own now, Just hunting, fishing, doing whatever he could as a young teen to, you know, to make it. He used to he used to skin and trap nuturers, and, you know, he'd go sell the sell the hides.

Wade Shoemaker: 32:31

Nutrients. For anybody not sure what nutras are.

Seth Chapman: 32:33

Yeah. Nutrients. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 32:34

Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 32:36

You know, anything to make a buck back in the day. So for for my dad, it was more of a thing of putting food on the table. Like, even in his early twenties, shells were expensive for for anybody that young. So he'd go out with three shells, he'd wait for all the mallards to line up, and, you know, he'd a couple shots, come back with six, seven, eight, ten birds. I don't know.

Seth Chapman: 32:53

Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 32:53

But back then, probably so. You know?

Seth Chapman: 32:55

That dude. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 32:56

And and what they call them, duck potatoes and stuff down there?

Seth Chapman: 33:00

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 33:01

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 33:01

So that that's what led into it. And then, you know, he took me hunting as as soon as I could hold a four ten. It was actually his four ten.

Wade Shoemaker: 33:08

That's a It was a little long Crank barrel, like

VO: 33:10

a Crank

Wade Shoemaker: 33:11

barrel.

Seth Chapman: 33:12

Barrel barrel. Stevens.

Wade Shoemaker: 33:13

Heavy, kick so hard.

Seth Chapman: 33:14

Oh, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 33:16

Loud. Yeah, dude.

Seth Chapman: 33:17

The gun was probably I'd probably had a 30 inch barrel on it. You know?

Wade Shoemaker: 33:20

Yeah. Weighed 12 pounds.

Seth Chapman: 33:22

Obviously, couldn't handle it, but I remember I remember hunting hunting as a kid, and, you know, we we would go we would go often. And then as I got into my my, you know, 10, 11, 12 year age, I'd I'd go with my friend Blake and his dad, they had an amazing lease, they still have it. And I mean, we me and Blake have been hunting for twenty years together, about twenty What's five years Blake's

Wade Shoemaker: 33:46

last name? Blake Morgan. Blake Morgan. I think I've I just wonder if I knew or not, but go ahead.

Seth Chapman: 33:51

I'm sorry. He's a

Wade Shoemaker: 33:52

I'll be embarrassing.

Seth Chapman: 33:53

He's real low key. He we still he hunts. He's one of the guys that you're not gonna see him on social media, but he's hunting you as hard as anybody on social media.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:00

I love him.

Seth Chapman: 34:01

So, yeah, I hunted with Blake, you know, my whole upbringing. Man, you know, thirty years, actually. Wow.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:07

It's crazy.

Seth Chapman: 34:07

Twenty five, Golly, 30 grandpa. Yeah, dude, that's crazy. I'll be 34 next month.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:13

You alright? Yeah. Yeah. Almost Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 34:17

So that's that's what that's what did it, and I just I don't know, man, I I fell in love with warfare. I was never a big deer hunter. Yeah, I've killed deer, you know? Sure. All those things, but I was just something about something about warfare, I've chased relentlessly ever since I could really drive and go out on my own and do it without being brought somewhere.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:36

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 34:37

I'm thankful for my my dad and friends

Wade Shoemaker: 34:40

Of course.

Seth Chapman: 34:40

Before we could drive, that their parents would bring us. You just always brought up in it.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:44

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 34:46

But yeah, that's that's the Waterfall story, man, and I'm just, you know, I'm I'm very thankful that my wife loves to do it.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:52

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 34:52

So she, you we we man, we've hunted Canada to Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, everywhere.

Wade Shoemaker: 34:58

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 34:59

That's another good thing. It's it's hard leaving the house. Right?

Wade Shoemaker: 35:02

For sure.

Seth Chapman: 35:03

Without a blessing.

Wade Shoemaker: 35:04

Yeah, dude. Well, I mean and then, like, where you're at, like, it's just it's such a cool place. Like, I say where you're at, I've never hunted your where you hunt, but, like, I've hunted, I think, similar scenes. Yeah. Probably in on the coast, it was down there.

Seth Chapman: 35:15

Yeah. I've came along.

Wade Shoemaker: 35:16

Yeah, man. Well, honestly, I've never hunted there. I've hunted around it, like like, not far from Lacosteine in some rice fields. I've hunted down in, what's in Southwest? What's it called?

Wade Shoemaker: 35:29

Searching the eight, Hackberry. Hunted down there, sulfur area. You know, I've hunted Venice. Hunted Venice. I've hunted down in I've been on wax, never never hunted.

Seth Chapman: 35:38

Not far. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 35:39

I'm I've I've been on it, just never hunted it, you know. Just a lot of cool places, like and I hate to, like I don't know. I I just I love, like, the way it it feels the way that when I grew up, like, not even knowing because I didn't start dug in till I was 19, so, like, not knowing what it's supposed to be like, but now is it like I'm 40. So like, when I see that so twenty one years I've been duck hunting almost, and it's like, I still see that scene and think, man, this is exactly what duck hunting's supposed to feel like and look like. Even even if there's no ducks in it, you know, it's like, man, this feels like it should have something, you know?

Wade Shoemaker: 36:15

And Yeah. And I feel like your scene where you hunt, it'd be really hard to not that not that you don't wanna go shoot other ducks, but like, you it just feels like feels right, you know? Like, you're at it right.

Seth Chapman: 36:25

What duck hunting's supposed to be like. It it really is.

Wade Shoemaker: 36:28

Yeah, dude.

Seth Chapman: 36:28

You know, every time I every time I see one of Dale Bordelon's videos, that's Yeah. That is how duck hunting felt all in the nineties, all in the two thousands, like, the upbringing was is what he still does today.

Wade Shoemaker: 36:39

I need that man to make me about a eight man stump blind. I love that. I'll he's pure, man. Like, he's he's the the call everything he does is just such a it's just a cool thing, man.

Seth Chapman: 36:52

It's something to kind

Wade Shoemaker: 36:53

of aspire to. Before before I get older and, like, look back, I wanna do it now where I can just be like, how how cool is it now? And that way I can build on it. I just I love what he does and what he stands for, and then, like, digging out canoes and Oh, it's so all that. Man, it's it's so he he he connected me with a guy one time, this is off topic, but he connected me with a guy, he's younger than us.

Wade Shoemaker: 37:14

Dude's in college in Mississippi. Dale borderline connected with this dude. Yeah. He's already digging out canoes. Really?

Wade Shoemaker: 37:19

Yeah. I mean, like, I can't I can't off top of head, can't remember his name, but like, it's somebody that like probably would be cool to connect with because he's doing the things like Dale does, and and he's he's in his twenties, you know?

Seth Chapman: 37:30

That's neat, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 37:31

That's a

Seth Chapman: 37:31

lot of work. That's Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 37:33

I I think it's cool, man. Especially to see somebody that old doing the things that, you know, unfortunately aren't common anymore. I dig it. And, dude, I love the story. Like, I've never heard that whole story from you.

Wade Shoemaker: 37:44

It makes me wanna come down and, like, I wanna see that that village or whatever that township or whatever you wanna call I would love to bring it.

Seth Chapman: 37:51

It would be it would be so fun.

Wade Shoemaker: 37:53

That's my jam, man. Like, I I dig that stuff, and it's don't know. I got chills like you were talking about, like, just how the they had to do the things and just the history behind that area. That's the things that I love, man, because I think that's what keeps me like just and I think it keeps a lot of people just really connected to like what they love about the sport and what they love about heritage and the things that's going on around them. And I don't know, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 38:17

Evolution's cool and all, but it really, really helps and hits home to go back and look at where it started. You know? Yeah. It's true. I love that.

Wade Shoemaker: 38:24

I I didn't mean to spend that much time on that. I'm sorry.

Seth Chapman: 38:26

But Oh, yeah. And I can talk about that all day.

Wade Shoemaker: 38:28

I I can tell. Like I'm about it. Like, we'll have we'll have to do it. I love it. But I wanna I wanna move on to the next question.

Wade Shoemaker: 38:35

With that, I mean, obviously, there's been huge changes. So, like, what what have you seen over the years, like, in I I would say, like, in your area when it comes to duck hunting, like, obviously, you know, the the amount of ducks may you know, have changed some, the type of ducks have changed. Yeah. You know? But what have you seen personally?

Wade Shoemaker: 38:54

And I say personally because a lot of people will tell you a lot of things from what they heard from people. You know? But I wanna know, you personally, hunting the same area forever. Yeah. What have you seen change over the years?

Seth Chapman: 39:06

Oh, man. That's so that you know, we talk about this all the time. I as a kid, hunting hunting this one little section in Pecan Island called Mulberry Island. Mhmm. It is almost it is almost a replica or a sister island of Chinateague.

Seth Chapman: 39:21

It's a little bit farther down the It was it's an old ridge where people homesteaded probably in the seventeen hundreds, eighteen hundreds, and the the oak trees grew up, the beach was at one point, and the beach gets pushed back and pushed back. So hunting hunting over here since the first place I ever went hunting when I was six was Marlboro Island.

Wade Shoemaker: 39:37

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 39:37

And then in my early upbringings, man, we would kill mallards. We would we would kill green there was more greenheads that he knew what to do with.

Wade Shoemaker: 39:44

I've I've heard.

Seth Chapman: 39:45

And and and it's so funny to hear, like, the younger generation now are like, oh, man, we never had greenheads over here. But, like, we we We we killed

Wade Shoemaker: 39:54

four. You're 34.

Seth Chapman: 39:55

Yeah. I'm young. Right?

Wade Shoemaker: 39:57

Some these people are are your age saying that there's never been greenheads here. Yeah. You know?

Seth Chapman: 40:00

And I'm like, y'all just they didn't I I was blessed to be able to hunt in in And this we killed greenheads and and widgeon and pintail, And I remember the last amazing hunt I had in Mulberry was 01/18/2017, and it froze. The whole thing froze. The that was almost ten years ago. Last crazy hunt.

Wade Shoemaker: 40:23

And that was the year after, or maybe the year the year because 2016 was the last like, really big big hatch year.

Seth Chapman: 40:29

Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 40:29

Like, so yeah, I've said that, golly, yeah, I could imagine.

Seth Chapman: 40:32

We we couldn't I remember we couldn't get down there because all the bridges were iced over, so we went back to my camp, took a nap, tried it again, the bridges thawed out. We got to the blind at 2PM, and we're breaking holes, you know, in the ice. And before we could even finish breaking the holes, there were mallards and gray ducks just dive bombing this open water because they were so thirsty. Everything was frozen. We were the only ones

Wade Shoemaker: 40:55

nowhere else to go. I mean, they were at the bottom. Where they were in the Gulf, bud? You know?

Seth Chapman: 41:00

Yeah. No. We're we're literally you could hear the waves crashing on the beach from where we are. Oh, man. So that was that was one of the last amazing hunts.

Seth Chapman: 41:07

Now look, we still kill birds, but it's greys. It's teal. Yeah. We kill we kill a little bit of vision, but

Wade Shoemaker: 41:13

Yeah. It's been teal there, Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 41:15

Yeah. It was some pent up, but not even like it used to be, man. It's it's like it's it's spoonies, grays, and teal. That's a big teal. It is fun.

Seth Chapman: 41:23

It's it's a fun shoot and it's ducks, and I'm never complaining about shooting ducks, but you just don't see the mallards. You really don't. And really, some places have pintail. It's fun. Like, some places will have some beautiful canvas back, and I haven't killed a canvas back over there in fifteen years.

Wade Shoemaker: 41:38

That's crazy.

Seth Chapman: 41:39

It really is. How close it can be.

Wade Shoemaker: 41:42

That's funny too, like, because used to I mean, like, because we know, when I live in the north part of the state, and we don't we don't shoot mallards like we used to for sure, you know, or see like we like we used to, you know. But but also like, man, I mean, canvas backs were a thing that weren't uncommon. You know, we and we still shoot them well, and, you know, Catahoula is is in between us, and and they they still have a bunch of them there, but not nearly like they were. And it's it's just a crazy thing to see how things change over that time and for you to to see it in its heyday. And if you've been hunting for, I mean, twenty eight years, twenty seven

Seth Chapman: 42:16

years same spot.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:18

In the same spot, and then in the last you know, really your last incredible hunt was you know, was what?

Seth Chapman: 42:24

Ten years ago.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:24

Almost yeah. Almost ten years ago.

Seth Chapman: 42:26

Almost ten years ago.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:27

Yeah. So it's like a decade ago was that. And not to say you won't have another one like that, because if you get a free if you freezing up down there where you're at, something crazy is going on.

Seth Chapman: 42:35

It is. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:36

Because

Seth Chapman: 42:36

I think y'all we froze last winter or did we freeze winter before?

Wade Shoemaker: 42:38

Probably last winter, last week of January because it was I

Seth Chapman: 42:43

went out there, I brought my wife, my little girl, she was bundled up in her little Eskimo suit. Was like, I said, Darren, we're gonna kill them. I said, the last time it froze like this Yeah. It was unbelievable. We didn't see a single bird.

Seth Chapman: 42:53

Mm-mm. Frozen. Everything frozen.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:55

I was

Seth Chapman: 42:55

like, I know.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:56

They moved up.

Seth Chapman: 42:56

They moved. They were gone.

Wade Shoemaker: 42:57

You know? They moved.

Seth Chapman: 42:58

They were break the ice. We froze. Didn't see a bird.

Wade Shoemaker: 43:01

They went east a little bit, southeast a little bit. I know where you we all know where they went. But like but, I mean, you it it is what it is, and that that's that's a cool thing for me to hear. Like, I I love that you still got opportunity there. I love there's still a bunch there.

Wade Shoemaker: 43:14

You know, you're it sounds like the struggles that you have is the struggles of most every other Sure. Especially for me where I'm at, like, we we have the same ones. We just do it. It looks different. You know?

Wade Shoemaker: 43:23

Yeah. So that that's that's a cool story to hear, man. I appreciate you sharing that with me because I know it's been it's been a lot of difference differences over the last several years. And of the things you and I was gonna ask you here, like, of the things you experienced, like, what was one of the most fun hunts? And I would say maybe that was your answer for the 2017 hunt, but is there a hunt that sticks out to you?

Wade Shoemaker: 43:43

Not that it was crazy and you killed a bunch and they were dive bombing the hole, but, like, is there a hunt that you remember? And it could be something like a family member, your dad, your grandpa, whatever. Like Yeah. May maybe it was, you know, your just somebody a a pal. I don't know.

Wade Shoemaker: 43:58

But just a fun hunt that you've been on. It doesn't have to be down there in Pecan Island. Like, it could be anywhere. Like, what's one of the most fun hunts you've experienced over the years?

Seth Chapman: 44:06

There look. There is there is so many. I'm it's just like it's like asking you that question right there.

Wade Shoemaker: 44:11

Yeah. I don't have an answer to like, you know?

Seth Chapman: 44:13

I'll give you, like, two top ones. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 44:15

Let's do it.

Seth Chapman: 44:16

Early on, me and my buddy, Ruston Como, he grew up in Pocono. I went to high school over there. Like, he is purebred Pocono Island.

Wade Shoemaker: 44:23

Como.

Seth Chapman: 44:24

So we me and him have hunt been hunting together since, you know, two thousand fourteen, fifteen. Mhmm. And we weren't gonna go hunting one morning. I have a I have the picture on my my thing somewhere. It's my first wife, and she has a pile of ducks around her neck, and we're in some she was wearing some some max four camo.

Seth Chapman: 44:41

So we it was storming. We had to take a Go Devil to the to the blind. The wind was probably blowing forty, fifty miles an hour. We're in like waist deep water, but there's white caps. Right?

Seth Chapman: 44:52

So me, Rusten, and and Delaney, we get we get to the blind, we're we're getting drenched, we're getting rained on. It's it's just unbelievably bad weather. We're like, why did we do this? It was horrible. And as soon as the rain stopped, we smashed a three man in like, I don't know, thirty minutes.

Seth Chapman: 45:10

Yeah. And it was it was just a fun hunt, man. It was it was really unbelievable.

Wade Shoemaker: 45:14

A three man of I mean, it don't matter what it was.

Seth Chapman: 45:17

Oh, was yeah. It was was a lot of vests. Was some teal, probably some wigeons, some some grays, maybe a couple mallards in there. The the picture's on one of my Facebooks somewhere. I've shared it a couple times over the years.

Seth Chapman: 45:28

It's it I have so many pictures, but it's somewhere in there. It's it's just of Delaney with all the the ducks around her neck. That was very memorable. And then, man, me me and me and my current wife, Darren, we had the coldest hunt I've ever experienced in my whole life in Kansas. And it was like, we we killed Bird, but it was the setup.

Seth Chapman: 45:47

We I think we set up like 3,000 rags or something. This was 2020 2020?

Wade Shoemaker: 46:00

And you said rags, so y'all were snow were y'all snow

Seth Chapman: 46:02

good time? Yeah. Were snow good time.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:03

Yeah. Was this was this conservation season or was it during just during regular season?

Seth Chapman: 46:07

During regular season.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:09

Y'all set up a 3,000 rags bread. Yeah. Wasn't conservation season?

Seth Chapman: 46:13

Yeah. It was it was unbelievable.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:14

It was

Seth Chapman: 46:16

it was the most miserable setup I've ever had in my life.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:20

Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 46:21

We were on top of this hill. It was it was, I think, three degrees. The wind chill was probably negative 10, negative 15. And we were we were so cold, but we were sweating because we were all working.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:30

Oh, that sucks worse.

Seth Chapman: 46:32

And yeah, dude. It was it was good, though, you know, but it was a it was a it was Y'all

Wade Shoemaker: 46:35

just shot some?

Seth Chapman: 46:37

We have a shot

Wade Shoemaker: 46:37

some. Okay. Okay.

Seth Chapman: 46:38

We didn't shoot enough to warrant 3,000 rags, but it was still fun.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:42

I don't know if you can. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, I have

Seth Chapman: 46:45

It was it was three trailers full. It was it was crazy.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:48

Of rags. Yes. God. Or if anybody's not sure, like socks, like, we all because you you call them rags. They're probably socks.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:55

Yeah. Was socks. Yeah. Socks. There's there actually are rags too.

Wade Shoemaker: 46:58

Like, they're like Yeah. I I didn't I didn't know that and I say that because I used to not know there was a difference. Like, there was a Texas rag it No. It was was just socked.

Seth Chapman: 47:06

Just the the single clip open with the with the steak.

Wade Shoemaker: 47:09

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 47:09

And and we laid we laid in corn blankets on the frozen ground.

Wade Shoemaker: 47:13

Oh. Dope. No, dude. Yeah. Dude, it

Seth Chapman: 47:16

was I that is

Wade Shoemaker: 47:17

I mean, unfortunately, the weather was wild, but, like, that is my favorite way to hunt them is in the decoys, under a rag, or just, you know, on a on a a seat, like a bat, or what do you call it? Crap, man. Just I just Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 47:34

Backboard. Backboard. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 47:36

Yeah. Yeah. So that's my favorite way.

Seth Chapman: 47:38

Very cool, dude. I say third one is I actually proposed I proposed to my wife in in the dug blind. I proposed to del Darien in 2020, I guess, maybe

Wade Shoemaker: 47:51

in the '19.

Seth Chapman: 47:52

It was at it was at Delta Delta Outdoors in Lake Village, Arkansas. I remember where Stetson's Place. Really? Seth Carver had it at the time. Me and Seth, they were all good friends, man.

Seth Chapman: 48:05

It was Iron Wolf at the time, and then has Stetson has the Delta Outdoors. So, yeah, we we just I knew I was gonna propose, and I was like, I don't know if we're gonna kill birds or not, but my buddy Jesse you know Jesse Hexham? He was our guide.

Wade Shoemaker: 48:16

Yeah. Okay.

Seth Chapman: 48:17

So dude, we we absolutely I don't know. I think we killed like a ape man, and then I proposed right after.

Wade Shoemaker: 48:22

That's sick, dude.

Seth Chapman: 48:23

I had it all on video. It was great.

Wade Shoemaker: 48:25

I'm glad you brought that in. Like, I love that story, but I'm glad you put that in there because I mean, if you would have left that out, you know, y'all would probably yeah. That's bad, dude. You know Don't it? It was amazing.

Wade Shoemaker: 48:36

I love so my buddy actually leased a blind up there one year, and I and I didn't know it was a thing. I think this is the same place, but it's it's like you go and like it's this big hotel looking building, and then there's like a restaurant on the backside of it. Is that the same place?

Seth Chapman: 48:53

Different place. No. So this is an old church event hall type thing.

Wade Shoemaker: 48:58

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 48:58

He does have a full commercial kitchen and a bar inside of it, but it's in Lakeville right in the smack dab middle of Lake Village, Arkansas.

Wade Shoemaker: 49:07

I wonder, what is it what is it? Is it still Delta Outdoors now?

Seth Chapman: 49:10

It's Delta Outdoors now. Yeah. It was Iron Wolf. It was maybe like it was originally Big Bayou or something, then it was Iron Wolf, now it's Delta Outdoors.

Wade Shoemaker: 49:18

I had to figure out what that other one is. My buddy had a blind up there one time. It wasn't the one you're talking about. I wanna say the Iron Wolf one. I do know iron wolf though, and I don't know why I'm getting these mixed up because they're all kinda kinda they're kinda close in proximity.

Wade Shoemaker: 49:30

But anyway, I love that, and I think it's very cool that you did find you actually included that story in in the in the most fun It's

Seth Chapman: 49:38

a good story. It gets flagged whenever I posted it on TikTok. TikTok doesn't like to see dead ducks.

Wade Shoemaker: 49:43

Well, you know. So I've shared it a

Seth Chapman: 49:45

couple of times. It actually was a good viral video. Me getting down on one knee, and she freaked she was shaking because we're cold, you

Wade Shoemaker: 49:50

know? Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 49:51

She had a whole ringer. Basically, we set it up to like, hey, Darri, put these put these ducks around your neck. We're gonna take pictures. Yeah. And she turned around and there it was.

Seth Chapman: 49:59

It

Wade Shoemaker: 49:59

was Oh, dude. I love it, man. I love it. And the fact that you killed birds, like, wasn't like a, you know, I love that. So let's say let's say you had these fun hunts.

Wade Shoemaker: 50:09

Right? Those are cool. On the other side of the spectrum, what is like the one of the wildest ones? Like like and maybe it was down when you got caught in a low tide, got stuck, you know, you had stories. Like, let's hear it.

Wade Shoemaker: 50:18

I wanna hear

Seth Chapman: 50:18

anything not fun. That's exactly what it is. Alright. So we went to Ponca City, Oklahoma Oh.

Wade Shoemaker: 50:25

To yeah.

Seth Chapman: 50:25

To go to go hunt Call Lake. And if anybody remembers Call Lake

Wade Shoemaker: 50:30

Fool.

Seth Chapman: 50:30

Call Lake is the it's a very dangerous lake that a country singer actually drowned in. I forgot what country singer it is, but he was duck hunting. Yeah. And the lake is huge, and when the wind picks up, I mean It's

Wade Shoemaker: 50:40

not safe.

Seth Chapman: 50:41

You'll have four foot white caps in there.

Wade Shoemaker: 50:43

It's not safe.

Seth Chapman: 50:44

So we we went public hunting, right, with no public hunting experience on a whim. We loaded up my Yukon I

Wade Shoemaker: 50:51

took this threw in

Seth Chapman: 50:53

threw threw a threw all the decoys, all of our stuff in a trailer. We had six people with us, maybe eight people. I don't remember. And we go we go to Cole Lake, and so what happened was Coal Lake had a historic flood, and they plant they plant millet Millet. And everything at the bottom of the lake to attract the ducks.

Seth Chapman: 51:10

Well, they had a historic flood that year, and it flooded all of their all of their crop. Mhmm. So we get there and there's no crop, there's nobody hunting, it's cold, and we don't see many birds. We're like, well, we didn't drive all the way over here, you know, we go start knocking doors, asking farmers and landowners if we can hunt their potholes.

Wade Shoemaker: 51:30

Yeah. Stuff

Seth Chapman: 51:30

like that. And we get we get shut down everywhere. So we're like, alright, you know, last minute, we're gonna go hunt cold lake tomorrow morning. So we go out there, and they have this small trail down to, I'm a call it the beach. It is a beach, it's sandy.

Seth Chapman: 51:46

So we walk everything down there. Right? Because we're like, you know, we don't wanna get caught down there and get stuck or something.

Wade Shoemaker: 51:53

Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 51:53

Yeah. So we walk all of our stuff. I mean, make blinds, you know, dozens of decoys, guns, bags, everything, enough of eight people. We hunt. We we're pulling wood and branches and brush off the shoreline to make a blind.

Seth Chapman: 52:09

Then we're like, we don't know how we're gonna get these birds if we shoot them in the water because it's like choppy. It's like six six inches to a foot of chop. So we kill a couple birds. Great. No problem.

Seth Chapman: 52:19

We hunted that afternoon. That was that was the afternoon hunt because we figured afternoon would be better. So we had the afternoon hunt, and we're like, man, we have so much stuff. We really like, we it's gonna be it's gonna take two hours to grow this stuff back up. We're we're like we're like 30 feet below the ground level at the beach down here.

Seth Chapman: 52:38

So there's a huge, you know, ridge where we parked up at. So we're like, we're gonna get the vehicle. We're gonna go grab the vehicle. So we one of our guys grabs the vehicle, drives it down the little trail. You can tell maybe some Jeepers went down there, pulls up to us, we load everything up, I he turns

Wade Shoemaker: 52:55

love that you said Jeepers. Oh, you know those little duckies, like ducks Yeah. With I got it.

Seth Chapman: 53:00

I do. So this is like, let's say 7PM, we're picking up, it's getting dark. He had it in two wheel drive and he got stuck. And now we're we're at the bottom of this Yep. Of this sandy ridge, middle

Wade Shoemaker: 53:13

of You'll that. You'll have that.

Seth Chapman: 53:14

And so we put it in four wheel drive and backed up, sunk it, framed it out. I'm telling you, framed it out. So I was like, alright. Well, we're stuck, we have no we have nothing, we have nobody. I can't bring my Yukon down here because I'm gonna get it stuck too, then we're not gonna have a way back to the hotel.

Seth Chapman: 53:32

Yeah. So I posted on I get on I join all these Oklahoma stuff four by four pages, I'm like, hey guys, we're stuck at Coal Lake. Everybody's like, oh, you're in trouble. You're not supposed to have vehicles down there at Coal Lake. I'm like, yeah.

Seth Chapman: 53:45

We didn't plan on getting stuck, you know? It's a we were just picking up our stuff. Game warden shows up.

Wade Shoemaker: 53:51

Oh, no. So,

Seth Chapman: 53:54

obviously, he the guy sees the the post is getting shared. People are ragging us because they're like,

Wade Shoemaker: 54:00

you giddies. Oh, yeah.

Seth Chapman: 54:01

You shouldn't have gone down there. A game warden shows up. I'm still friends with him on Facebook. Spencer is his name. We're trying to think of his last name, but Oklahoma Game Warden.

Wade Shoemaker: 54:09

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 54:09

So we go talk to him, dude's cool as a cucumber, bro. He's like, y'all are crazy for this.

Wade Shoemaker: 54:14

You know, be not you're

Seth Chapman: 54:16

not supposed to be down there. And he was like, but there is no signs. He was like, the signs are going.

Wade Shoemaker: 54:21

So that can't that way. Because I'm gonna tell you, it did have been Louisiana. You're supposed to look at the map, Blair. You ain't gonna Yeah. Do

Seth Chapman: 54:29

so we, you know, couldn't take I mean, he could have taken us for a lot of stuff. We were like, bro, we didn't kill no birds. We all got our licenses. He

Wade Shoemaker: 54:35

felt bad for y'all, man. He did. We were stuck.

Seth Chapman: 54:37

And look, he was like, I can't do nothing for y'all. He was like, I'm not going down there. So this guy reached out to me, and I'm still friends with him on Facebook today, Les.

Wade Shoemaker: 54:48

Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 54:49

And so Les commented, he's like, I got a Jeep with a winch. I'll come get y'all. I was like, man, I'll do whatever, you know? Mhmm. So he gets down there, drives.

Seth Chapman: 54:59

He has a little Jeep Grand Cherokee. He comes up. This is like midnight by now. He drove all the way there, like, an hour and a half. All he does is they have like this recovery group where they recover people and they help each So other he pulls up his Jeep with a 12,000 pound winch on the front.

Seth Chapman: 55:12

The vehicle probably weighs 3,000 pounds.

Wade Shoemaker: 55:14

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 55:15

Hook onto the front. The front of the truck has no tow hooks.

Wade Shoemaker: 55:18

Oh, no.

Seth Chapman: 55:19

It had a grill guard at one point. They removed the tow hooks for the grill guard to sit. But he happened to have the bolts for the grill guard in the back. So we stuck a a half inch bolt through the grill guard, and we hooked his his snatch block from the winch, and it just wedged it. And this little Jeep pulled this 1,500 on 30 fives out, but how he would have to do it was he would have to get stuck in the Jeep, like he winched he tightened it up to get stuck, and then he would winch the truck to him, and then he would winch himself out, and then he'd back up.

Wade Shoemaker: 55:52

So we were doing process.

Seth Chapman: 55:53

It was 25 feet at a time because he had it snatched, so he only had 25 feet of pulling power. God.

Wade Shoemaker: 55:59

And he

Seth Chapman: 55:59

got us he got us all the way out, and I'll never forget that guy. Look, we're still friends. This has been ten years. That was that was crazy. We that was our last day there.

Seth Chapman: 56:09

We went back to get some sleep, and we never went back public hunting Cole Lake again.

Wade Shoemaker: 56:13

Hey, buddy. And I'm not that's probably not a bad idea. Yeah. It's it's tough, man. Like, people don't realize when you get out there the things you don't know.

Wade Shoemaker: 56:20

Yeah. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah. And and if you go out there thinking it's just duck hunting, it's not. It's the same as somebody trying to put it in Venice and go across the river on the south wind.

Wade Shoemaker: 56:28

Like, it ain't happening, dude, or north wind even. Like, good luck. You know? It's just

Seth Chapman: 56:33

not 10 degrees too. It was cold.

Wade Shoemaker: 56:35

Ain't no way, dude. Yeah. That's I I had a buddy who was hunting up there, not there, but he was in Kansas somewhere, and he was backing his boat down, and and he's look. He he's capable. Like like, just like you guys are completely capable of, like, doing whatever they wanna do, but he's backing this boat down and the wind's coming at him.

Wade Shoemaker: 56:54

And the the water's pushing over the boat pushing over the boat, but it's also below freezing. Wind chills like in the teens. And before he gets to the bottom of the boat, the bottom of the boat ramp, or before he gets the boat in the water, there's already ice in the bottom of the of the boat. Oh, wow. The ramp is slicking over, and you this dude's driving a two wheel drive avalanche, and he just can't the boat like, he's it's getting pulled in the water.

Wade Shoemaker: 57:15

And thankfully, the, you know, the water when you when your boat gets in the water, it's not really weighted anymore because it's floating a little bit, and the water's pushing you up, and he had to get somebody to I don't remember he had somebody pull him out, but I remember it was just he couldn't couldn't get his truck up the ramp. So he's like, yeah, we can't do this. You know? Yeah. Just things like that you don't realize, like, it it's the it may be the same thing as far as duck hunting, but the situation, the scene is totally different.

Wade Shoemaker: 57:39

And you just gotta be aware, and you are you know now. Like, let's let's make sure we're aware when we show up at this place.

Seth Chapman: 57:45

Oh, big time. And, you know, I've I've gotten boats stuck crossing the marsh, had to wait for the tides to come back in. You know, all the things like that as as a young teen, you know, went outboards before I had a gator tail. So, yeah, that that was definitely the craziest one.

Wade Shoemaker: 57:57

That's so funny, dude.

Seth Chapman: 57:58

I've been in a lot of walking situations where the fool over the brakes and you gotta walk a mile back, you know Do a week. Couple miles.

Wade Shoemaker: 58:04

If we if you ain't done that, then you you you haven't done you ain't been hunting more enough because it's gonna That's right. It's happening, dude. Yeah. That's fuck. What all the like, that was rough, and that's something nobody ever wants to go through, like, delaying your day twelve, fifteen hours, you know, just because you got stuck.

Wade Shoemaker: 58:18

What's was something I mean, you know, you you started back when you were six, now you're 34. You've went through all these things. How how much how much nicer is it, you know, like, as a hunter, like, on the day to day? Like, you got dairy and going hunting with you and stuff like that. Like, she she can enjoy it because every, you because the, like, the the, I don't know, improvements or whatever you wanna call it, evolutions.

Wade Shoemaker: 58:41

Do how how do you see it? How much nicer is it for you than it was? And just as a as a community, how much better do you think it is with all the advancements that we've got in clothing? I would say clothing is probably the main one, Yeah. You

Seth Chapman: 58:55

Clothing is everything, you know?

Wade Shoemaker: 58:56

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 58:57

Whenever well, obviously obviously, I'm with Shin, I've been with Sitka, the the these Drake, all of these clothing brands have come so far

Wade Shoemaker: 59:07

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 59:07

From the early years where you just froze. Like, you wore anchor tight lacrosse boots and you froze. Yep. You had three pairs of socks. Man, the clothing, the technology like, sometimes I almost feel bad for getting in my North Star with the heater on

Wade Shoemaker: 59:21

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 59:21

And going to a going to a pit blind. Like, it doesn't feel fair. No. Sometimes I wanna I wanna hurt a little bit. You know?

Seth Chapman: 59:27

I'll take

Wade Shoemaker: 59:27

the three wheeler. Like Oh, yeah.

Seth Chapman: 59:29

I keep I keep a three wheeler in my camp. I'm like, I'm a take that today. I wanna

Wade Shoemaker: 59:33

feel Let's like I'm see if we can flip this thing in some gumbo mud just for old time's sake. Yeah. It's funny.

Seth Chapman: 59:38

All those things the the clothing is unbelievable. Like, these these the engineers and these people behind all these different pieces that adapt with each other is it's, you know, you're not all puffy anymore. It's it's wonderful, man. Yeah. The guns have come so far.

Seth Chapman: 59:50

Look, I I still love me at Remington, but like, you know, we're we're shooting 28 gauge Yeah. At these birds and just killing geese. It's just

Wade Shoemaker: 59:59

the shells have come a

Seth Chapman: 01:00:00

long way. The shells are amazing. I, like, I shoot four ten all the teal seams in now. It's just so fun, dude.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:00:06

That's cool. Yeah. Love that. I I love hearing that because also, like, you bring mentioned the clothes, the guns, the shells, the the everything. Electronics, the modes, everything.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:00:18

Even like when it comes to clothes, the technology, but also as we get older and understand it better, like, the layering side. Like, not necessarily putting a bunch of cotton on. You know? And there's nothing wrong with that. If you do it, like, go for it.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:00:30

But, like, you can wear you might wear three or four layers, but you're not as thick as the other guy that's wearing two jackets. Yeah. You know? I I just I don't know. That's something I think that that is just the the ability to find out, like, the right way to do it, I guess you can say.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:00:46

And look, I'm a be honest. There ain't I haven't found a way, because I'm a baby when it comes to, like, hands. Like, if the wind blows and and it's under 45 and my hands are wet, my hands will, like, lock up.

Seth Chapman: 01:01:00

Lock up.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:01:01

Lose they don't have any good the circulation's not real good at them, and it's been that way for ten, fifteen years. Like, it's not because I'm old, which I'm getting there, but it it's been that way, dude. And and that, like, that's the only thing left for me as far as the recipe, but I think it's just keep them covered more than anything, you know?

Seth Chapman: 01:01:17

That's it. I use some Zippo I got some Zippo hand warmers. Yeah. They're rechargeables, dude. They're I mean, I love the hot hands.

Seth Chapman: 01:01:23

Right? But the Zippo hand warmers, they they last forever. You can charge your phone off of them. My wife found them for me on Amazon. And

Wade Shoemaker: 01:01:29

we I mean,

Seth Chapman: 01:01:29

we bring I lost one in Canada, but and I got three of them now. So

Wade Shoemaker: 01:01:32

If they come out with a waterproof one that's electric Yes. I'm in. I'm just worried about me just I I don't know. Maybe it's just because I'm an idiot, but, like, I'm worried about them getting wet and then just all of a sudden lighten myself up or just lighten myself up, you know? Like, don't know.

Seth Chapman: 01:01:48

That's true. There's a big lithium battery in there.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:01:50

But I'm telling you, it but I know this was like a quick a quick hit because I just wanted to like kinda get your take on that. I just feel like that's an important piece of it because you've been doing it since you were literal first grader. You know? Yeah. And now here you are crushing it as a as a as a grown adult, and I think it's cool to hear that that perspective.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:02:09

Yeah. Well, look, I I got a couple things, and and you've seen this question before. I know it's a hot topic for you. I wanna talk about this. Man, I saw a comment.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:02:17

I can't remember it right now, but, like, it's a viral collab right now with lady in the bathroom. And if y'all know who is, like, if y'all don't know who that is and you're listening, like, this if somebody's on there, it's like, what are you talking about a girl in the bathroom for? Just look her up. She dances. She's funny.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:02:32

She's she's very cool. But Seth, you did a collab with her and some other guys, I think another HVAC guy. Yeah. They're out of Florida. Bro, how did that even happen?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:02:41

Like, there was some fabricated beef between you guys on the Internet at some point.

Seth Chapman: 01:02:45

That's exactly right.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:02:46

Like, tell me like, feel us because this is this to me, this is hilarious.

Seth Chapman: 01:02:50

It is, man.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:02:50

And I love it.

Seth Chapman: 01:02:52

So me and Kyle, a k a big k. Alright? That's his TikTok handle. Big k. They have he has one way air out of Florida.

Seth Chapman: 01:03:02

He has five locations, one in Knoxville. But anyway, he was we we kinda blew up on the chatman side of TikTok, 60,000, 70,000 followers, just from doing funny videos, like, nothing really serious about HVAC at all, and so these air conditioning companies and other trades, I noticed they started like doing the same stuff we're doing. Well, Kyle, I used to big bro him, right, because he had like 3,000 followers. Yeah. We're friends, you know?

Seth Chapman: 01:03:29

I was like, yeah, dude. Yeah. Go ahead and do your thing. So he originated this singing circle thing. He was like the the guy that created

Wade Shoemaker: 01:03:35

He started this trend then.

Seth Chapman: 01:03:37

He started this trend Okay. Where it's a it's a bunch of a bunch of blue collar guys in a circle and, you know, they sing in Ella or whatever. Yeah. Know? So he went from 3,000 followers to almost 700,000 followers in, like, three months.

Seth Chapman: 01:03:52

Mean, like Holy. Unbelievable growth. All of his pages have grown. His personal page, all the one way pages. So me and him, he was like, dude, I was like, look, bro, I'm I'm not a I'm not a singer, I'm not a dancer, I got two left feet.

Seth Chapman: 01:04:06

I said I said, I'll do a singing circle, but I gotta do it with you because if I do it, they're gonna tell me I'm I'm I'm copying you and all this stuff. So I said, if I do one, it has to be with you. He's like, dude, that's a good idea. He's like, let's fabricate some some beef before I come to I the

Wade Shoemaker: 01:04:21

love it.

Seth Chapman: 01:04:22

Because like, people people know that I'm the guy that that'll call you out, you know, on social media, and he's not that guy. Yeah. So he was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna call you out. He's like, you gotta retaliate. So we did that.

Seth Chapman: 01:04:34

We made a funny video. My my social media girl made a funny video, and then the whole time he was on his way here. Yeah. We're just getting the crowd primed

Wade Shoemaker: 01:04:41

So that video he put on that was talking, like, just noise in the car Yeah. Was in the car

Seth Chapman: 01:04:46

you. To me.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:04:48

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:04:49

Okay. Yeah. I think he was on his way to the airport, and then my social media girl clapped back that night, and then by the time that video's going viral, we're already filming the next video Yeah. The next day. So I know Chastity.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:03

Chastity Terrio, lady in the bathroom, she has two point something million followers. Like, she is so good at what she does in her niche on TikTok.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:05:10

She's so good, dude.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:12

The editing is crazy hard, so she blew up with that. She's relatable. She's funny. So I hit her up, I was like, hey, I said, Kay and his one way crew coming down, his social media girl, I was like, you wanna come film one of these videos? She was like, absolutely.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:27

Yeah. And, you know, Chastity has a lot of followers. She gets she gets solicited all the time to go do these videos, so I'm thankful that she did it because it it blew up. Think it's at like 6,000,000 views on Instagram right now.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:05:39

That's so cool.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:41

It's just singing circles, man. It's funny stuff. We went we went all Louisiana based.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:05:44

I saw that.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:46

Just some funny stuff, and it just gets the crowd going, you know? We drop we drop little subtle hints like like they wore their jer their jerseys backwards.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:05:55

Backwards? I saw that.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:56

That was the thing back in the early two thousands.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:05:58

Oh, no.

Seth Chapman: 01:05:59

You remember like Nelly and all of they would

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:01

do it. Big tall tees, big Yeah, baggy dude. Do rags, backwards Yeah, remember

Seth Chapman: 01:06:08

It went viral quick. We knew it was gonna go viral. We didn't expect it to do that. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:12

It did. Yeah. Well, I mean, and your boy from Florida, if he's already got this, like, momentum

Seth Chapman: 01:06:18

He's shift following.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:18

Like, he doing just trying to see what he's doing next. You know? Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:06:21

So we started the video and he had a he had his mask on.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:24

So we made

Seth Chapman: 01:06:25

the first round and but peep everybody, like, they know his gestures.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:28

Well, but that's not the one with with with No. That's the first one. That's the first one with the mask on.

Seth Chapman: 01:06:33

That's the first one with the mask on. I I think we did

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:37

because he did that because the second round is when he had the mask off.

Seth Chapman: 01:06:40

Had the mask off. Yeah. Yeah. We did we did Wipe Me Down with Chastity. I'm trying or we did Really Really by Kevin Gates for the first one.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:46

That's right.

Seth Chapman: 01:06:47

Man, people were like, yo fabricated this beef, or y'all y'all really hate each other?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:06:51

Yeah. I I was reading through the comments, like, because because I called it out of order. I called the chastity video first, and then I called the beef video, then I called the the one with the mask on. So it was just cool to see it in kind of in backwards motion, I guess. But hearing hearing it from your perspective is like, it just

Seth Chapman: 01:07:08

It was funny. Blew up. It it gained a lot of traction, you know.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:07:12

I think it's still rolling though.

Seth Chapman: 01:07:14

It's still rolling. Like, I can't every time I open Instagram, all the things are maxed out notifications because cause we collabed on Instagram, so I get all the same notifications.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:07:22

That's cool.

Seth Chapman: 01:07:22

It's a lot. I can't even mitigate the comments. There's like 17,000

Wade Shoemaker: 01:07:25

No. There's no way, dude. You just gotta hit them every I you well, I I commented on one of day and you saw it, and I think you might have replied to mine, but like Yeah. Like, we know each other, so it makes sense. But I just It shows up.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:07:35

I love it, man. And I love I love seeing those kind of things. And I like different stuff, man. Like, I don't you know, an HVAC two HVAC dudes, one from Florida, one from Louisiana, doing a dancing video with a girl in the bathroom. What was one of the comments?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:07:46

It was like, I done seen it was talking about that I saw Paul Wall, they saw Justin Bieber, they saw somebody else, and they saw a lady in the bathroom, and I dude, I lost it on that. I was

Seth Chapman: 01:07:56

like, this

Wade Shoemaker: 01:07:56

is hilarious.

Seth Chapman: 01:07:58

Dude, I got I got some good looking young HVAC techs, and it's funny.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:08:01

Yeah. And they, you know,

Seth Chapman: 01:08:01

they getting they getting drooled over, and I'm like, yeah. I need I'm about to have my air condition break.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:08:06

You know? You you gonna have somebody come out and quit because they don't they don't they don't had a conversation that made them think they don't need to be doing HVAC anymore. Yep. That's funny. Funny, dude.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:08:16

I love but I love that you bring your people in too. Like, that's that's what it's about. Like, you mentioned earlier that you just you really enjoy employing people and doing that, and and and it shows because if you bring them into what you're doing in the day to day, like, man, you're not just there to tell them to go, like, service a service a unit or install a whatever. Like, it you do enjoy employing these people and adding value to their lives and adding value to that that area that you're in. I think that says a lot about you as a person and who you are, and and I love it.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:08:44

And I just wanna say that out loud to you because I think that what somebody does or they don't, that's something to be proud of and and that you should be. So Yeah. Thank you. Grateful for people like you in the areas that you're in.

Seth Chapman: 01:08:54

No. I I enjoy it. I like I like seeing them thrive and buy houses and buy the trucks they want and take their coaching. That's my favorite thing.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:09:00

Happy with them. Yeah. Happy with them. Cool, man. Well, look, this is something I wanna cover.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:09:05

It's the last, like like, question I have for you because this is going I I I love this entire, like, recording that we've done and Absolutely. But without naming anybody, I won't name any names, but I think this is something some you can sort of speak on you can speak on it, I think, and I think this is a good good banner to have, but what are your thoughts on this whole influencer hunter conversation that seems to be taking place? Like, I've seen a lot of people that are just out, you know, whether it's and this may be a can of worms that we may have to edit out that I may not they might be, no, Wade, we're not doing this. And they can cut it. That's fine.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:09:39

But I wanna have the conversation with, you know, there's one thing going on about these these hunters that are beefing and all this, and and I've got my thoughts on that, but I wanna talk through with you. And then there's also this part about, like, the recently, this past couple of weeks, I've seen a lot of females speak up about, you know, the attention for what? Like, what's the attention for? Like, know, whether it's what they wear, what they do. And I love the conversation, and I and I'm gonna say some things that that may surprise some people, May not, but I wanna hear it from you, and then we'll go back and forth.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:10:12

This is a real transparent conversation of a guy that has grown a huge following, and I'm speaking about you, like a huge following on more than one platform who who at your core is a duck hunter, but you also own a couple of businesses and part of them those businesses, part of those that part of that and growing it is the social media side. So like, it is literally part of your life because it helps you grow your businesses, not because it helps you, you know, get you know, not because it helps you get a brand deal. You know? Because that was that's never been your goal. Right?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:10:43

Never. It happens, but like Yeah. That it works. So I want I wanna hear your take on this. Like, we can I wanna cover the, you know, the the I don't know how to even propose the question?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:10:56

Maybe I should have thought about it more, but what's your take I I guess, what's your take on the influencer hunting and and people that actually hunt for the the right reasons? Because there are some that don't. This isn't a this isn't like a a shake in my fist. It's somebody that that is an influencer that hunts for just because it's it's cool because I think there's a place for that, you know? I think that's how people get introduced to it, you know?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:11:19

Some people do. But what are what are your thoughts on the influencer hunting thing? The whole scene that it's been that's been created by it?

Seth Chapman: 01:11:28

Man, it it's I'm I'm torn both ways. Right? So on the positive, the influencer hunting thing is is they're either really good influencers and you and you won't know that they don't know anything about hunting, or they've hunted very little in their life, and they're so good at influencing that whatever brands they're backing or promoting Mhmm. Is actually gaining traction, and the brand is doing good. And maybe the brand has genuine people in it, and they're using this person who has a good influence to promote the brand.

Seth Chapman: 01:11:59

And look, I'm okay with that. I will say, you know, I don't even know if that Instagram page is still around. I I caught wind of it a while back. It was called hunting the fakes.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:12:08

I think it's over with.

Seth Chapman: 01:12:10

Yeah. I don't know who was behind it. Right. They they had some some silly points and some good points. They were like, why why are you buying followers for for the clout?

Seth Chapman: 01:12:22

Like, if you're getting one or two likes per page, it doesn't look, it looks ungenuine. It's not authentic. Yeah. If you're not you know, your crowd, like my crowd on Instagram is not I would say it's not even majority hunting. It's probably sixty forty, the truck scene and blue collar stuff, and maybe 40% hunting.

Seth Chapman: 01:12:41

Yeah. So if I post a picture of my truck, the engagement is unreal. If I post a picture of some ducks we killed, you know,

Wade Shoemaker: 01:12:48

$100. And people don't we didn't mention this earlier. I think it's important to note, you've got some pretty wild builds. Like, you've got the cool car, you've got the trucks. Cool cars, trucks, mega trucks, all that.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:12:57

Yeah. Just just people to know, like, that's that's a part of your your life.

Seth Chapman: 01:12:59

That's my thing. That's where I built the original following. Yeah. So, you know, the the I think people were, I I think the I'm a call it the old heads, older than us, they call it the Duck the Duck Dynasty generation, whenever Duck Dynasty Look, I love Duck Commander, I love Duck Dynasty. Whenever they made it cool though, they made it the cool thing to do was hunt.

Seth Chapman: 01:13:19

The TV shows were amazing, and that brought in a lot of people who were just chasing that

Wade Shoemaker: 01:13:25

Yeah. That Curious.

Seth Chapman: 01:13:26

The clout, the curiosity, maybe encroaching in other people's areas that they've hunted for for twenty years, and it was public land, but it's public. So, you know, I'm not against the whole influencer social media thing because I do it. Yeah. But I feel like you have to be genuine when you do it, and you can't have some ulterior motive to I just wanna get famous in this. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:13:47

Like, why are you doing it? You know? That's good. I'm I'm doing it because I love waterfowl, and I want to support the brands that support the real cause. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:13:57

If people are doing it to get free product, it it usually comes out in the wash. They'll see it, you know? Yeah. It it eventually comes out.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:04

No. That's good, man. I I appreciate what you're saying, like, you just you're not against it because you do it, you're just Yes. Willing to be authentic, you want to be real. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:12

Just

Seth Chapman: 01:14:12

be real. Like, don't don't fake it, you know? Like, if you aren't that guy, be humble enough to say, I'm I'm learning in waterfowl, I don't know a lot yet. I learn every day. Like, I can't blow a spec call to save my life.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:24

Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:14:24

I'll try it. Right? Yeah. Which which

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:26

is which is out of character for somebody from the area you're from.

Seth Chapman: 01:14:29

That's right.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:29

Right? Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:14:30

Was a duck hunter. I was never a goose hunter. Yeah. I mean, I'm hunting geese. I've killed dozens and dozens of geese, hundreds, but I was never a great caller.

Seth Chapman: 01:14:38

Right?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:38

So I

Seth Chapman: 01:14:39

won't ever fake that. You know, I won't pretend like I'm the I'm some world champion. Right?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:42

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I get it, dude.

Seth Chapman: 01:14:45

And that's kind of my thing, like, you're gonna if you're gonna influence, influence and be genuine about it.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:50

Yeah. No, I love that. That's a really good way to put it, man. And that, you know, that's something we could talk about for a while. I I feel the same way as you do.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:14:57

Like, if you're gonna do it, make sure it is part of who you are and not just a piece of a a piece of a role that you're playing. Right? So I get that. And there's a lot of ways we can talk about it. I just I just wanted to hear your thoughts on it because I think it helps hearing it from somebody who was a hunter before this and then but also has a strong social media following, but but understands that hunting is not what built that for the No.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:15:22

You know? And you're not and and you just and you're not only pushing hunting stuff out there as an like as as an influencer. Yeah. You're pushing your business more than anything, and I think it's a cool perspective to have, and and I do. And I just I think for me a lot of it a lot of the arguments or the conversations are they're only doing it for clicks, they're only doing it for and Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:15:42

People are upset about it, and I get it, you know, because it does kinda put a a weird taste in somebody's mouth about the sport when they see this disingenuine or I don't even know that's a word, but this inauthentic play about the sport, right, or about the the world that we grew up in or world that we love, you know. And I and I think the the angle of mine is just just, hey, if if they're doing just doing it for clicks and and you're we're when we're doing it because we love it, let's just keep doing it because we love it and and understand that the clicks they're getting is gonna run out, you know? It will. It'll go away. And and I think shelf shelf life is a real thing for a lot of these things and the ones that aren't genuine or authentic with it, shelf life shorter, you know?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:16:23

Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's a good way to put it, and and I love I love how you put it. I love I love but I also love why you why and how you do your thing, dude. Like, I think it's it's such a cool a cool piece. Awesome.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:16:35

Yeah. But look, dude, I wanna I wanna move forward. I wanna close this thing out, and I wanted to end on that last question because I felt like it was important. I felt like it was a really good bookend on this this entire conversation. But the one the way I wanna end every every podcast I'm able to do, whether it's the Riverside where where's this app, you know, this Internet thing or whether it's in person, whether it's at HQ in Memphis, I wanna end it out, and and it's kind of like it's kind of like everybody wins.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:17:01

Right? Like, we will and I know I know you're this kind of person too. We want everybody to win, and we we want everybody to do well and succeed. So like, in the spirit of that, I wanna ask a question that I stole from one of my favorite podcast hosts. What are this can be brands or people.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:17:17

Right? Like, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be hunting. It can be anything, dude. You know?

Wade Shoemaker: 01:17:23

I I just I wanna give you a chance. Two brands or people in the hunting space or not that you love, what are what are two of them that are moving the needle that you wanna give what or who are two of them that you wanna give props to?

Seth Chapman: 01:17:37

Oh, man. Well, you clearly, my my my number one, I'm gonna be honest with you, just because you hosted it, is you.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:17:44

Dude, you You have

Seth Chapman: 01:17:46

done so much in waterfowl socially, organically, and genuinely. There there's a lot of genuine people, but you're genuine. And and I I follow you wherever you go. I watch your stuff. I like what you do, and that's why I'm doing this.

Seth Chapman: 01:18:03

Like, I can't say, you know, hey, Seth, you wanna be able to do podcasts? Oh, I don't know the guy. What what is he what is he about? You know? Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:18:09

You you are a big one, man. And you know another one that I really I really enjoy? I don't know. He's not really a brand. Mean, Jim tips.

Seth Chapman: 01:18:16

There there's so many brands. I'm gonna give a a big shout out to to the Quack Shack Podcast and Austin Pollock. Dude, that's one of my good friends. He's such a good guy. Yeah.

Seth Chapman: 01:18:31

He's he's helped me out in the waterfowl industry, you know, he's brought people to me. He's connected people just like you have. Yeah. And he's he's going big places. Yeah.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:18:40

Good. You know, he he

Seth Chapman: 01:18:41

comes home with me every year. We we do some stuff together. That's cool. But yeah. Man, he's Austin's great.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:18:47

Yeah. I love that, dude. Thank you. Like, one, thank you for what you said on the first part of that. Like, I really appreciate that.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:18:53

It means means the world to hear it from someone. And then to have you mention another pal of mine, Austin, that doing the same thing. I love to hear that because that just lets me know that we're running around in the right circles. The right people. And do that I mean, if if we're not helping each other, then we're we're probably hurting ourselves, to be honest.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:19:10

So I love that, man. Like, I love that angle. I love that process. Thank you for for that and for sharing, you know, a little piece of your world with us.

Seth Chapman: 01:19:18

Yeah. Absolutely, man. Thank you.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:19:20

Dude. Yeah. No. For sure. Well, look, Seth, again, crushing it.

Wade Shoemaker: 01:19:24

Love what you're doing. I appreciate you. Folks, that is that's gonna be it for the day. Thank you for listening to Ducks Unlimited Podcast. We'll see you next time.

VO: 01:19:33

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.

VO: 01:19:58

Until next time, stay fired up, stay focused, and stay tuned to the Ducks.