One man’s mission for more confident quacks
Overview
Matt Carey is the guy calling in the blind who makes you decide to quietly tuck your lanyard back under your jacket. His duck calling is good. It’s make-you-feel-embarrassed-about-your-quack good.
But Matt Carey is also the guy who wants every kid, man and woman to be as self-assured about their own calling as he is when they’re working ducks. And so he teaches them.
“I just want people to feel confident,” Matt says on this episode of The Slayer Hunting Podcast. “And then I want people to be able to kill ducks.”
Easier said than done. New hunters often struggle to learn the basics of calling. And we’ve all been in the blind with someone who clearly, um, missed a few crucial lessons. But Matt has helped dozens of waterfowlers improve their calling. Now, he’s the lead instructor for Slayer’s Call the Wild how-to series, doling out the kind of guidance that he thinks is missing from YouTube tutorials.
It turns out, you can put a price tag on confident calling. It’s $16.99.
In this episode of The Slayer Hunting Podcast, Slayer’s Tommy Sessions talks with Matt Carey about his outdoor lifestyle photography, his passion for duck calling and how every hunter can become a better caller.
Connect with this episode’s guest, hunter and outdoor lifestyle photographer Matt Carey:
Slayer calls mentioned in this episode:
- The Ranger, Double Reed — open bore design
- Drake Slayer, Single Reed
- Drake Slayer, Double Reed
- Suzie Slayer — bocote wood
Duck calling and hunting tips:
- Call the Wild: Learn to call with Matt Carey
- Pre-season waterfowl checklist
- Pre-season decoy prep
- A hunter’s guide to waterfowl guns and ammo
- 5 tips for success hunting on public land
The Full Story
Listen to Episode 12 of the Slayer Podcast or read the full transcription below:
Bill Ayer (00:00:00):
Hey all. Welcome to the Slayer Podcast. I’m your host, Bill Ayer owner of Slayer Duck Calls, a company founded on family heritage, unrivaled quality craftsmanship, and an uncontrollable obsession for hunting. Let’s get to it.
Tommy Sessions (00:00:13):
Tommy Sessions with Slayer Calls. You’re probably used to Bill Ayer being here, but the lucky devil right now, he is actually, he’s probably there by now, but he is headed to New Mexico or in New Mexico. He was lucky enough to get an elk tag there to try his second hand, unfortunately unsuccessful in Idaho as far as harvest goes, but we’ve talked and he had a lot of opportunities at good bulls and had a heck of a season. So he is now in New Mexico with Joe, who you probably remember from some previous podcasts. And chasing bulls just extended their season. It is October 7th right now, so they got to go down there and chase some bulls in New Mexico.
(00:00:59):
So we are now October 7th. I have hunted one day for waterfowl this year. In East Idaho we opened a little bit earlier than some other places, so I got out with my kids and nephews and my brothers and went and shot some geese down on my brother’s ranch and had one heck of a time. It was phenomenal. If you guys check out the Honker Slayer video that just came out, that was actually part of that hunt and I was supposed to be getting some video and action of the call and everything. And we were just covered up in honkers the whole time and I just had to hit record on my phone and just go with it.
(00:01:43):
So anyways, but that brings us into waterfowl season and we are here today with Matt Carey. And Matt is from Nashville, Tennessee. He is an integral part of our call system. If you guys have been following along, paying attention to Slayer, Slayer’s been taking stuff by storm. Been putting a lot out there, been changing the game, and Matt, again has been an integral part of that. He has taken on Call of the Wild courses. And so I’m going to let Matt kind of take over and I’ll stop talking for a second. Matt, go ahead.
Matt Carey (00:02:22):
Hey, how’s it going? Good to be here. Thanks for having me.
Tommy Sessions (00:02:26):
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for making time for this.
Matt Carey (00:02:29):
Yeah, so I’ve been working with Slayer for a little bit now and probably a little over a year. And maybe half a year ago we started talking about this Call of the Wild idea. That’s been in the making, so it’s super cool to see that out. And I already see a lot of responses on how people are doing with that and taking the courses, getting in there, trying things out, learning how to call and all that, so that’s been really fun. But a little bit of background, I guess before we get in the depths of everything. So if you don’t know who I am, again, my name’s Matt Carey. I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and I’m a photographer. I do wildlife photography, lifestyle photography for hunting, all that sort of thing. And that’s kind of how I got connected with Slayer. We met each other through Instagram. Met so many people through Instagram.
Tommy Sessions (00:03:30):
Yeah. Social media is the-
Matt Carey (00:03:32):
It’s crazy.
Tommy Sessions (00:03:33):
… kind of the connector now. It’s amazing.
Matt Carey (00:03:36):
Yeah. All right. I went on a hunt last year in Oklahoma and I got there and I didn’t know anybody, but I actually had met every single one of them via Instagram. So it was this weird thing where we’re all in a room together for the first time, but luckily it wasn’t super awkward. It was a really good time. But yeah, so I do hunting photography, fishing photography, all that kind of stuff. Really love doing that. Really love the outdoors. Some people like to take photos more than they like to hunt. I would say I like to hunt more than I like to take photos.
(00:04:17):
But I think my whole thing with what I’m passionate about is letting people experience the things that aren’t normally captured by a camera. Or a lot of people don’t hunt. I have so many friends and family who don’t hunt. They’re not familiar with any of that. So capturing these moments that I can share, that they can get a glimpse into my world, the things that I love, the things that make me tick, all of that sort of thing. And then even my hope is that people who either don’t hunt or haven’t done it before are inspired by something they see in one of my photos. Whether it’s a bird in flight, being able to see a mallard cupped up coming in, landing over decoys. Or if it’s seeing a picture of some guys hanging in a blind or something like that. Inspiring people that they might be interested in trying it out.
(00:05:22):
A little bit of my story and background, I don’t have the typical hunting growing up story like a lot of people do. I didn’t grow up hunting. I grew up fishing with my grandfather and my dad took me trout fishing a handful of times when I was a kid, but besides that, that was kind of the extent of my outdoor adventures. We’d shoot squirrels with BB guns in the backyard, but that was pretty much it. We lived in suburbia.
Tommy Sessions (00:05:56):
Yeah. Just kids being kids out there doing stuff you probably shouldn’t have been doing.
Matt Carey (00:06:00):
Yeah, right. No, there was no thought of a season in our mind for sure. But yeah, so hunting is something I kind of found later in life. When I was in college was about the time when Duck Dynasty and all that kind of stuff was on TV and I had a good buddy who grew up hunting on Reelfoot Lake and so he was super into duck hunting. We watched a bunch of Duck Dynasty and so I got a little bit of knowledge about what it was about and he invited me to go hunt, but it was with his dad’s hunting club and all this. And he never actually said, “Hey, you want to come these dates and all?” And I didn’t have any of the gear so I wasn’t going to invite myself into that.
(00:06:54):
So I kind of caught the bug in college, but never got to go until after. And then my first hunt, I got to go down in southeast Arkansas, just south of Stuttgart. Hunting in flooded timber in a cypress slew kind of deal and it was awesome. We nearly limited out lots of gadwall, teal mallards, wood ducks. I mean it was just the gamut and I was hooked. For that hunt, I borrowed my dad’s 870, borrowed my dad’s canvas waders. I was so freaking cold.
Tommy Sessions (00:07:43):
Yeah, because you got to stand in the middle of the water the entire day [inaudible 00:07:47]. Oh, yeah.
Matt Carey (00:07:51):
Yeah. That’s kind of how I got into it. And then I went back to Nashville, bought me a kayak, bought me a dozen decoys, bought an 870 and went out to the lake and started figuring it out. Probably took me five or six hunts before I actually shot anything.
Tommy Sessions (00:08:08):
No, that’s awesome. I love it. I love hearing the nitty gritty. People’s I guess it’s a success story, but at the same time it’s a failure story. I mean that’s how I’ve learned on so much… That’s how everybody learns is you fail forward. But that’s awesome that it took you that many times, because I think back and I look at people and they’re like, “Oh, I went out and we just hammered the birds.” And it was like 42 honkers in one day, or it was 49 ducks in that morning or whatever. And I’m guilty of this, you get so spoiled that you’re like, you go out and you shoot a two man limit, but it took you five hours or I don’t know. And you’re like, “That sucked.”
Matt Carey (00:08:58):
Yeah.
Tommy Sessions (00:08:59):
You kind of look at it and you’re like, man, what happened to the first six months that you were on? You got hammered, but you still kept going. And I think that’s what makes us come back. I love it.
Matt Carey (00:09:14):
Yeah, I just love the journey and the experience. I mean, I grew up being on the water and so I think because of that duck hunting holds a special place in my heart for sure. Just being out on the water, watching the sunrise, all that stuff, so I have a good time even if I don’t shoot anything.
Tommy Sessions (00:09:34):
Yeah. Well you’re not videoing, but taking photographs. And Matt, so when you go out, do you make special trips or do you combine them and mash them together? So for instance, is it like, “Hey Matt, you want to go hunt tomorrow?” Or we’re good hunting buddies and I say, “You want to go hunt tomorrow,” and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m not going to shoot though, I’m just bringing a camera.” Or do you, you just bring both and you take your photographs whenever you feel like it or how does that happen?
Matt Carey (00:10:10):
Yeah. So going back to what I said before, I like hunting much more than I like taking photos. So I’d love to shoot. Thankfully, where I am, we don’t have a ton of ducks all the time, so I have plenty of opportunities to take photos. But yeah, so I always bring my camera. I don’t always take it out of the case. If I’m just enjoying the morning and I might see things, I always see something that looks cool, especially in the early morning when the sun’s coming up. I mean the light is just, that’s the best time of day to take photos. I always see stuff, but if I’m enjoying the morning and just hanging out with my buddies, sometimes I’ll bring the camera, but I don’t ever take it out of the case.
(00:11:09):
But I usually try to do a little bit of both. So if I’m in a blind, I’ll have my gun sitting there and I’ll have my camera sitting on the bench next to me. We do a lot of kind of popup hunting on the lake, so we’ll build a blind on the shore or something like that. And so I’ll just throw my camera into the blind bag and it’ll be sitting there and then I’ve got my gun handy. So if I see something I want to take a photo of, or if someone does something that looks cool and I’m like, “Ah man, do you mind just doing that again?” I kind of make that happen. Most of my buddies, they were reluctant at first to do things again or be a photo model, but they get all these cool photos of themselves, so they’re usually pretty happy to do that.
Tommy Sessions (00:12:02):
Now they’re insta famous and they’re appreciative, right?
Matt Carey (00:12:04):
Right.
Tommy Sessions (00:12:07):
Awesome. You basically, so you’re in Nashville, you guys mainly do water… Not waterfowl, that’s terrible. Do you do water hunts or do you guys mix it in fields, everything like that?
Matt Carey (00:12:21):
Around here, pretty much I would say 98% of what we do, maybe even higher than that, is all in the water. I know of a couple guys who do some field goose hunts, but not really much of a field duck hunt place. We do have access, we’re going to try, this year we have access to some private property that’s right next to our waterfowl refuge. So we’re really want to try to do a field hunt out there this year and see if we can make it happen, do a little bit of traffic and see if we can get them to come down. I know they planted corn in that field this year, so good chances birds might be rooting down there.
Tommy Sessions (00:13:03):
Yeah, I bet you won’t be running traffic if there’s corn out there. Hope you have a camera in that thing. That’ll be fun. There is something about, I don’t know if anybody else out there in the world has it comment when this comes out on YouTube, but I have this kind of infatuation when it comes to waterfowl. I don’t really care too much to shoot. I do love it, but I’ve had enough of it. It’s kind of like an intriguing and a goal or a passion I guess is, I love hunting ducks over land and I love, absolutely love hunting geese over water.
(00:13:44):
I think it’s just one of those things, you hunt so many ducks over water for so long, it’s kind of like, “All right.” Not that it’s boring, but I want something different. And then you shoot so many geese over land because that’s where you always target is out in the fields for when they come to feed. But it’s so hard to find a good roost and you don’t want to blow up a roost necessarily so it’s like a loafing area rather. I’ve only had a handful of good water shoots for honkers. So I just, I’m curious to know how that goes this year for you guys. I think you’ll find a new passion out there chasing mallards in a cornfield.
Matt Carey (00:14:24):
Yeah, we’ll see how it goes. We have a good bit of water and typically the birds around here don’t seem to hit the fields like they do in some other places. But I mean, once you go west Tennessee, I mean a lot more people are hunting in fields. There’s just a lot more ag out there, rice fields, so on. But yeah, I’m excited. When I went to Oklahoma, what I was talking about earlier, that was the first time I actually hunted in a field for ducks and it was just crazy how different the birds work in a field. I mean, these groups of 40, 50 of them just dropping in all together and they’d almost land after two passes maybe land right on top of the Mojos. I mean it was cool.
Tommy Sessions (00:15:19):
Yep, absolutely love it. The newest product for Slayer Call, and this was brought out, I know when I was in Salt Lake at the ISE show with Bill and Tanner and Jen and we had a lot of people come up and they really, it’s a lot of Utah, I don’t know how Tennessee is, but they really want that open water call that they can really ring and just hammer on some ducks and then bring down and go nice and soft and sweet talk to them. And so that kind of drove the production of the Ranger call, the Ranger open door. And if you’ve been on Instagram or anything like that, you probably have seen it, but it does it. The exhaust port on that thing has been opened up and for some serious sound. Actually Matt has one. We can probably talk him into giving us some sound file here and let’s hear it Matt.
(00:16:37):
So that’s the Ranger. Now you also have a single reed Drake Slayer. Can you give us a little bit of sound file for that and then I would like to compare and see if we can tell. Audio’s a little bit, when it comes to hammering on it, but let’s see if we can hear the differences.
(00:17:19):
So I can tell the difference. Maybe to somebody that’s just listening in and hasn’t heard a lot of calling, but I can tell that actually the Ranger Open Bore is really, it’s a pretty deep sounding call and it has a very distinct sound. It’s hard to say inside of the room that you’re in and the audio that we’re on, but the clarity of the sound and it seems like it just has that reach to it for a lack of a better term. And then the Drake Slayer just seems a lot more toned down. I mean you can hear the inflection in it, you can hear the rasp in it more than the Ranger. The Ranger doesn’t seem like it has quite the nasty down and deep, but it sounds like to me it’s getting there. Your thoughts?
Matt Carey (00:18:21):
Yeah, I mean immediately just what you put into the call is really different too. And you notice when I switched over to that single one, I over blew it. It took me a second to find the right amount of air. Because the open bore, I mean it takes a lot more air to really get it to scream. I mean to me the Ranger is like brighter sounding. It carries a bit more for sure. I mean it’s overall louder just because that bore is so open but it’s brighter to me in the room in it sounds really raspy to me when I think of how I would use it. I mean if I was hunting in the woods or hunting on open water, I would probably pick up that call just trying to make a lot of noise. If people cut down calls and making a lot of just barky kind of quacks, the Ranger’s really good at that.
(00:19:28):
The single reed I feel like I could ring a note differently. It’s a little more finesse I would say than the Ranger. And you can, I mean obviously get a lot quieter and then even quieter I think on the Double Reed Drake Slayer, which I don’t have sitting right here with me. But I mean that call is just so much quieter and it’s really great for finishing birds. But even on the Ranger you can still get pretty dang quiet on it if you get your air right.
Tommy Sessions (00:20:06):
Yeah, I had some questions with the honker and getting real deep and low and a lot of that comes from back pressure. And same with that calls, it’s all about that back pressure. It doesn’t matter if you’re blowing that Single Drake Slayer or you’re blowing the Ranger, if you let that exhaust port open and with no back pressure from on hand with your exhaust port hand if you will, you’re not going to get near the tones, you will. And also you’re going to use a full breath without really making any great sounds out of it. But once you get that back pressure dialed and know how to use that hand on that exhaust port, you’re right, you can make that Ranger really basically neck it down and tone it down to a finish call. And then open that bad boy up and let it just ring for that open water and get those sky high birds working.
Matt Carey (00:21:09):
Yeah, I mean, you were asking about what a lot of people use around where I’m at. I mean what I have always used is definitely louder calls. Before I had the Slayer stuff, I started on an old Buck Gardener double reed call back in the day. And then I’ve had lots of loud single reed calls. I mean that’s what almost everybody blows around here, are single reeds and loud calls or a cutdown call.
(00:21:46):
So the Ranger is my comfort zone comparatively. When I first met Bill and picked up the Drake Slayer, it took me a minute to get used to it because I’m almost everybody when they first pick it up, if they’re used to blowing a call with less back pressure built into the insert, they over blow it. But I fell in love with those other calls, the Drake Slayer. Just the amount of versatility you can get with it, especially as a finishing call. I fell in love. I never took it off my lanyard until we were in Dallas and I had the only blue call that was in existence and Bill was like, “Hey Matt, can I sell your call? This guy really wants that call.”
Tommy Sessions (00:22:41):
We might have done the same thing when we were in Salt Lake with one of my goose calls too. It’s kind of a habit, I think.
Matt Carey (00:22:47):
Yeah. Yeah. Don’t bring anything to a show that you don’t want to sell.
Tommy Sessions (00:22:53):
Yeah, no kidding. And that’s where I say at that ISE show where I think this Ranger kind of, and I could be totally off base here, but I heard a lot and so this is kind of filling a void for people. It’s like what you’re saying with picking it up and kind of relearning that single reed where you’re used to that way open bore, just being able to just hammer that thing. And you’re in the neck of the woods where the calling competition breeds are born and won. And so they’re coming out of the womb able to ring a duck call. And so it’s kind of a different breed down there. And when you pick one up, yeah you’ll definitely over blow that single Drake slayer no problem. But if you can finesse it a little bit, you get some fantastic tones out of it. But that’s where the Ranger is going to shine. Maybe not necessarily on a competition stage, I’m sure there will be somebody that’s able to blow that thing and get it tuned up. But it’s definitely a field call or a hunting call rather than being up on stage.
Matt Carey (00:24:03):
I’ve also noticed, just like when we were in… So the first time I think we had that at a waterfowl show, the Ranger, was specifically in the Arkansas show, the Delta Waterfowl Show. And those Arkansas boys like their cut down calls and they like their name, any Arkansas made call, that’s what they want. And so many people walk by and they’re like, “There’s only one duck call. And it was made in”… And they’re like, that’s their thing. But a lot of these guys were picking up that Ranger and loving it. And I’ve been handing it to a lot of my buddies around here just kind of during the off season, we’re out dove hunting. I’m like, “Here, try this out.”
Tommy Sessions (00:24:57):
Hunting doves with this bad boy.
Matt Carey (00:25:01):
And yeah, a lot of people, I handed it to one of my buddies and he’s used some of the other Slayer calls and he’s liked them, but he picked up that Ranger and just absolutely, he said, “That is a great sounding call. I want one.” So I think it’s going to hit that gap you’re talking about, people who want that more open sound. And I love it. I’ll probably keep one of each on my lanyard one double reed Drake Slayer. I really like the wood one. One of those and then one of these Ranger calls.
Tommy Sessions (00:25:40):
Yeah. I love wood. Wood calls are the best, in my opinion as far… I mean longevity unfortunately is not as good. Man, I’m going to botch this name, but Bocote or whatever the wood is. It’s a better wood than a lot of them. But unfortunately wood doesn’t last forever in blind bags. And I’m trying to, I don’t know about convinced, but I’m getting Bill talked into doing actually a full set of wood duck calls and wood use calls coming out and start marketing those too, so.
Matt Carey (00:26:21):
With a wood insert as well?
Tommy Sessions (00:26:23):
Well I don’t know about the wood insert. I would love it because-
Matt Carey (00:26:26):
I want to talk him into that.
Tommy Sessions (00:26:28):
… Yeah, because that’s what I grew up. That’s what actually, one of the first calls that I ever was using was a… I couldn’t even tell you the name of it. I used to work as Sportsman’s and I bet you that I sold 100 of them in a season because I would shave the reeds down for these guys. They were just nasty, deep sounding short read wood calls and they were awesome. And so hopefully we can get that full wood call. That’d be awesome.
Matt Carey (00:27:00):
Yeah, I just like the look of it. It’s just such a cool deal.
Tommy Sessions (00:27:06):
Yep. All right, well let’s dive into the Call to Wild, because that is… I mean there’s coaching out there, there’re videos out there, there’s YouTube, whatever. But as far as I know, and somebody is probably going to correct me maybe or there is something already out there, but this is the first that I’ve known that there’s actually a waterfowl calling course ever made. Is that correct or do you know of another one out there?
Matt Carey (00:27:37):
Yeah. There is a couple. So I mean there’s countless YouTube videos of people giving little instructions. There’s a couple of people who have made instructional courses, and honestly that’s how I learned to call is watching some of these instructional courses. One of them, when I bought… I hunted in Arkansas, I went to Mack’s Prairie Wings on my way home and I bought me a duck call and with that duck call came access to an instructional. But I remember watching this instructional and I was able to learn for sure. But then it wasn’t until really I went hunting with another guy who works for another call company and he said to me, really, he said to me a couple different things, but one thing stuck out was just like he said, “Everything you’re doing just sounds exactly the same. You’re only producing this one specific sound, whether it’s loud or quiet.”
(00:28:45):
And he taught me a lot about how to control my air. And I think that right there, the air control is the one thing that I think a lot of the instructionals that I’ve come across don’t do a good job of explaining. And they also go really fast on how they do things. And so when we started talking about the Call the Wild thing, we wanted to create something that was easy for anybody. If you just learned that duck hunting existed yesterday, you could jump into this course and you wouldn’t be lost, you’d be able to jump in and start learning how to use a call. As long as you had a call in your hand, you could get right into it. So we wanted to make it really easy for people to jump into at any skill level. And then also help people who maybe they’ve been trying to call but they don’t feel confident or maybe they have some bad habits.
(00:29:50):
So the way that we go through this course is focusing on one step at a time and really encouraging people don’t skip ahead. It’s very segmented. I mean most of the videos are no more than three minutes long. There’s a couple that are a little longer than that just because things need to be explained. But most of the instructions are really, really short because I think you get a call in your hand and the first thing everybody wants to be able to do is a feed call and just do it incredibly fast and show off to their buddies or be able to ring out a note or whatever. And so we don’t get there for a long time in the course.
(00:30:33):
The course is set up, there’s nine specific skills that we work through. Well I take that back. There’s nine videos in this first set on the beginner set for Call The Wild Duck. And the first two videos are focused on what in the world are we doing and kind of instruction. And then the second video talks about the call, the parts of the call, how everything works together so you kind of know exactly what’s happening. Some people get a call and they take it apart and don’t know how to put it back together and that kind of stuff. So we go through all the pieces and so that way when you start pushing air through this thing, you really understand how everything works.
(00:31:24):
And if you didn’t even have a call yet, you could watch this video and kind of get an idea, maybe I want to buy the Ranger or maybe I want to buy the Drake Slayer just by watching the first two videos. So we move really slowly, but the key thing is being very specific on the explanation and then making it really easy. The air control thing is super important, not forming bad habits early, something we really spend a lot of time harping on early on.
Tommy Sessions (00:32:01):
No, that’s good. I have had a lot of questions and I’ve taught quite a few people how to call and I’m not the best duck caller out there. I mean by no means am I the best goose caller. But I have called in competitions and that for goose before these guys went way above my level. But I’ve taught a lot of people how to call and the air, like you say, and the beginning stages is so crucial, and going to shows and talking to people and you know say, “Here, let me hear what you sound like and let me help you.”
(00:32:43):
That’s the very first thing I bet you, I don’t know, 95% of the time it seems like is you just have somebody blowing the wrong air and people probably listen to theirs and not knowing. And go, “Well you only have one type of air and usually it’s hot air coming out of you and it’s the same thing.” But it’s all different. It’s the presentation of air, where it’s coming from. All of those things play a huge key in different sounds. And then your back pressures, like we’ve talked about that. That’s phenomenal that it’s broken down slow because it as you go to a show and somebody’s like, “Oh that’s a beautiful call, let me ring it.” And you’re like, “Well let’s hear it.” And then it’s like, probably shouldn’t try to ring that. You should probably try to start walking before you run.
Matt Carey (00:33:31):
With this course too. The thing that I guess I get not, frustrated is not the right word, but it bums me out. We hunt a lot of public land out here and we’ll hop in blinds and sometimes I’ll end up hunting with people I don’t know. And we’ll get sitting in the blind and it’s get into first light and everybody’s got their lanyard on their neck and me and my buddies, we start calling at the first birds we see, starting to work the area. These guys hear us call and they put their calls away. And in one sense it’s like, “Okay great, we don’t have to talk about what we’re doing here.” But on the other end it bums me out that these guys they feel discouraged by hearing us call. They feel bad about whatever they’re… Or they don’t want to be embarrassed by whatever they’re going to do.
(00:34:33):
And I just want people to feel confident. And then I want people to be able to kill ducks. There’s a lot of people too that I see on public land that just they might know how to use a duck call but they don’t know how to call ducks. And so we do talk a little bit about that towards the end of the Call The Wild series of just some simple hunting tactics. And then we’ll get more into that. We’re working on the intermediate section that’s going to come out here soon. But that will get more into the hunting tips. And then we’ve got some other special things that I can’t talk about yet that are going to really help everybody out. I’m really excited about it.
Tommy Sessions (00:35:17):
Great.
Matt Carey (00:35:17):
But yeah, I want people to love it and I want them to feel confident and I want also for people to be able to kill birds, or kill more than whatever they’re killing now. So anyway, we could help them, that was really the goal behind this course. So try to make it really simple and hopefully it helps a lot of people.
Tommy Sessions (00:35:43):
Perfect. No, I mean that’s everybody’s goal hopefully. I mean unless you’re a photographer, you’re going to go out there to go shoot birds. I guess if you’re going to go as a photographer, you’re going to go shoot them in a different way. But yeah, we definitely want to have birds larking. We got to learn how to use the calls that we have. And so if somebody’s listening to this and I don’t know, let’s just say they’ve been around, they’re an Arkansas boy and they’re never buying a Slayer call, it sucks. All right. But how do they go about Call the Wild? What do they do?
Matt Carey (00:36:21):
Yeah, so there’s an app, The first step is download the app and it’s just called Call the Wild if it’ll be Slayer Calls’ app, Call the Wild, look it up on the app store. Download that, create a profile and then subscribe. And it’s really affordable. I believe off the top of my head, hopefully this is correct, I believe it’s 16.99 to subscribe to this thing, which is just-
Tommy Sessions (00:36:54):
Is that a one time or is it a monthly, is it yearly?
Matt Carey (00:36:58):
So it’s a subscription and the deal is too that we’re working on a lot to add to the app. So right now there’s just the very first beginner duck section that you can have access to. But we’re working on elk, we’re working on intermediate duck, eventually there’ll be a turkey call in on there. Who knows? So this is something we’re going to continually grow and add to. And as that grows, for now, it’ll be that price, but as it grows could potentially change. We haven’t 100% decided on that.
Tommy Sessions (00:37:46):
Yeah. So I just looked at it. You’re going to go into your app store and I’m using Apple, so I don’t know about the others. But you just type in Slayer Calls or Call the Wild, you’ll find it. And it’ll have our logo on there, the Elk bugling and then the two ducks below it and then the Call the Wild. You can check out a little bit of stuff I believe even without subscribing it looks like but not the full gamut.
Matt Carey (00:38:14):
Yeah, there’s an explore page, where you can see a handful of the videos there.
Tommy Sessions (00:38:22):
So yeah, 16.99 a year and I mean it’s super simple. Just pop on there. It’s about one of the easiest apps to navigate it looks like. And definitely pretty user friendly. I’m not very savvy when it comes to computer stuff. And so if we can make it that easy, it’s pretty simple to use for me.
Matt Carey (00:38:47):
For sure. And the other thing with the price point is one of our goals is we go to these shows and a lot of people that end up buying calls, we have a lot of people who are younger, maybe 14, 15 years old or even younger. We’ve had some boys that are like eight or nine years old, 10 years old, and they can scrounge up 17 bucks somehow doing some chores or something. But we wanted it to be they talk with their folks or they mow a few lawns or something. I mean you mow one lawn probably with the way things are these days and you could get your subscription. So we wanted it to be easy to access for the younger crowd because we got a lot of people who are buying their first call getting into waterfowl hunting just now. And so want it to be easy to access for those guys as well.
Tommy Sessions (00:39:45):
Yeah, certainly. So something that it’s taken me a long time to get this, but this mentality I guess is if you think about the time, and this kind of goes to anybody, but if you think about the time you put in the field, you think about the time you put into the scouting and then that’s just your time. And then you go and you look, think about the time that you put in, or I’m sorry, the money you put in to fuel to go scouting, the money you put into your decoys, the money you put into your guns, your ammunition, your calls, everything, your boat, whatever you’re doing.
(00:40:28):
And you calculate that and then you want to skimp on something as simple as your education and your progression in calling that actually is probably going to make more of an impact than going out and buying the most top dollar decoys or having 200 duck decoys or whatever it is. That $20 or less investment into that time is going to pay off more than that new $20,000 boat. Or well maybe you have to have a boat, but maybe it’s another $300 in duck decoys or something like that. So if you think about that and you look at it in that aspect, I mean the investments very, very small.
Matt Carey (00:41:17):
Yeah. No, I think that’s a great way to look at it. And I really think that a lot of people will find value in this course too. Even if you’ve been hunting a long time. I mean I meet people who have been hunting their whole life and have a lot of bad habits. They’re grunting and growling into a call or they run out of breath and they can’t call for a long time. And so I think even if you just pick up a thing or two, maybe how to quack or you know the correct cadences or how to do a feed call, but maybe you pick up a thing here and there.
(00:42:01):
All of this content that we’ve put together has been kind of pieced together by myself talking to Bill, but also from lots of people. I’ve talked to lots of different people, I’ve taught lots of different people how to use a call and I’ve kind of found out what works and what doesn’t work, what’s confusing and what’s not confusing. And so we try to take all of that into account and there’s a lot of different things in there, especially in the hunting tips section where people can pick up, I’m sure even if it’s a little nugget that’s worth 16 bucks.
Tommy Sessions (00:42:34):
Yeah. Yeah. If that makes your one more hunt successful or however, just like my explanation, it is. So we already talked a little bit about the app store, but what is somebody going to… They’re going to open up, they’re going to pay the money and then they’re going to open it up and then like you said, they’re going to start walking before they can run. What’s the very first episode? Give them a little bit of a teaser. What are they going to expect? Or I guess we call it episode but it’s the course. What is that going to be the expectation?
Matt Carey (00:43:09):
Yeah, so the first video is just an introduction video. It talks about what we’re doing, talks about calling ducks. Our goal really is to help you learn how to use a duck call properly, not form bad habits. And we want you to kill ducks. And I even say in the video, I’m by no means the best duck caller in the world. I’m not a competition caller, but I kill ducks. And so that is kind of really the thing even from talking to Bill about the goal of Slayer is to create a great hunting call. And so even with this course is we want to help people be able to hunt and be skilled in that area.
(00:43:57):
So that’s the starting point. Really, really simple first video. And then the other part of it is just encouraging people do not skip forward. The most important video in this whole course is the third video, which is the making the quack video. And we encourage you if you cannot make the quack, if your quack does not sound like my quack in the video, do not move forward. Because if you can’t produce the air properly, then you won’t be able to do any of the other things. It will be useless and you’ll just start creating bad habits. You’ll get frustrated, you won’t sound like what you want to sound like and you’ll give up. And we don’t want you to give up. So that’s where we start. And maybe I can just give an overview of the whole course. I got the course list here if that would be nice to know.
Tommy Sessions (00:44:57):
Yeah. If you want to. I was going to leave it there and give them a teaser. They got to go check it out.
Matt Carey (00:45:01):
Yeah, I won’t give them all the info.
Tommy Sessions (00:45:03):
Yeah, tell us [inaudible 00:45:06].
Matt Carey (00:45:05):
I’ll just run through the titles here. So we’ve got the intro video, we’ve got parts of the call, which I’ve already talked about. We’ve got making the quack. And after that we get into multiple quacks in a row. So we’ve got a three note cadence video. We’ve got a greeting call video, which is more of a four to five note cadence. And if you don’t know what the cadence is, subscribe and you’ll learn all about that. Then we get after that, after the quack videos, we get into feed calls and so we have an intro to feed, we have a stutter feed video. We have a roll in feed video. And then we get into the hunting tips.
(00:45:46):
Now along with each of the skills, the quack, the feed calls, the cadences, all of that, we have also created exercises. So we have multiple exercises for each skill that you learn so you’re not just learning something and then moving into the next thing. You learn about the quack and what to do properly and then I’ve got a couple exercises where you can copy me and repeat back after me and I’ll walk you maybe through some of the simple things we learned in the other video.
(00:46:19):
We talk about good practice skills. So we talk about one of my favorite places to practice is in the car. So I always keep a call in my car so I can practice when I’m riding around. I typically have a 30 minute drive almost anywhere I go from where I live. And so I’ve got 30 minutes of great practice time. Nobody else is in the car with me. I’m not going to annoy anybody. So I can make as much noise as I want. If I’m practicing a cut down call, I bring earplugs with me because it’s freaking loud, but I want to be able to hear things.
(00:47:03):
But yeah, that’s kind of the basics of it. And there’s a lot more in the depths of the exercises that’s super helpful. And the new intermediate series that we’re putting together right now that’s going to come out next for the duck call section is really going to add to the hunting skills, the more exciting skills I think people want to learn. A bouncing hand or a Cajun squeal or hail calls and all that kind of stuff, that all is going to be in the next section. But this is really just the basic starting point. If you’ve never picked up a call or you want to get your calling to a decent level where you can go hunt, this is the starting point.
Tommy Sessions (00:47:53):
Sure, sure. And I can’t Cajun squeal. I can do a bouncing hand, kind of. But I will be the first to say that they may help you kill a few more birds, but at the same time you got to get that first series down before you get into any of that stuff-
Matt Carey (00:48:18):
For sure.
Tommy Sessions (00:48:18):
… but if you never go onto the intermediate or if you only learn those and practice those to perfection in the first nine videos that will kill more birds than by not taking that. By having the bad habits and not sounding ducky. But that’s just my two cents on it.
Matt Carey (00:48:42):
Oh yeah, I completely agree. That’s why I call them the fun skills.
Tommy Sessions (00:48:47):
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Carey (00:48:48):
I mean honestly, if you can just learn how to quack, you’ll kill ducks. The quack is the most important skill and variations of it for sure.
Tommy Sessions (00:49:01):
So what episode is the drake whistle coming out? I haven’t seen that yet.
Matt Carey (00:49:06):
Yeah. We’re talking about it. I just got an email today of somebody asking about a Drake whistle. It’d be cool to have a drake whistle that sounds like an actual mallard drake.
Tommy Sessions (00:49:23):
We won’t go too far into those. But yeah, the long lost art of drake whistles.
Matt Carey (00:49:29):
Yeah, I love them. I always have one. I just like making widget noises on them.
Tommy Sessions (00:49:34):
Right. Every time I go out in the blind with my buddy and he was just like, he would just hammer every sound he can make on a drake whistle. “And here’s a pintail, here’s a mallard, here’s a widget.” Just like, “Come on dude. Not every one of these is flying, let’s go.”
Matt Carey (00:49:52):
Right. No, we have a lot of loons that swim around where we hunt and I’ve figured out on the drake whistle how to do a loon call. And I’ve called in countless loons into our decoys. They’ll dive and they’ll pop up right in 20 yards from us. Pop up wondering where their buddy is. They’re so confused.
Tommy Sessions (00:50:18):
Great. Cool. So I mean, without actually going into each course, I think we’ve pretty much sum that bad boy up. I urge anybody and everybody, like I said, doesn’t matter if you’re a competition caller. I guess if you’re at that level, you probably feel like you don’t need this or whatever. But like you said, there may be some little nugget in there that you find that either takes you to the next level or it helps you with the field advice. That $17 is a small investment to check it out. I urge everybody to go over to the app store, check it out and sign in, share everything that you can on Instagram with us, with Slayer Calls. Waterfowl season right around the corner.
(00:51:10):
So again, I said this with elk and it came to fruition that with the Arc Angel that we were going to have a flood of photos that the Arc Angel and the reeds were going to take it by fire this year. And we did. You can see it on Instagram and Facebook. The amount of photos that came through for elk was amazing. And I can see it again coming this year. I mean the waterfowl calls have been out for a few years, so we have definitely had a presence out there, but it’s becoming bigger and bigger and it’s kind of like a green wave, I guess, if you will. You see Slayer out there all over the place now. And I think if you take a look at this Call the Wild, you’re probably going to realize that Slayer’s on a mission and it’s to make waterfowl and elk hunting a… To help you reach your goals, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it.
(00:52:14):
But it’s not necessarily just to be out there selling calls only. It’s to help you. Like you said, we all have the goal to go kill birds or to kill an elk or to be successful in the field. And that’s what we want to help you achieve. If you guys want to check out Matt’s information, go to Instagram, because I was perusing through there before the show and his photos are phenomenal. It is Of The Field and it’s of_the_field and you’ll find Matt on there. His face is right or front and center of that. So yeah, he’s got awesome shots. Do you sell your photography?
Matt Carey (00:53:01):
As far as prints?
Tommy Sessions (00:53:02):
Yeah.
Matt Carey (00:53:03):
Yeah, I have a print shop and I’ve sold some things. Around the holidays a lot of times I’ll get messages from people. But yeah, I’ll sell prints and if you ever want something that’s not on my print shop, I can make it happen for you.
Tommy Sessions (00:53:21):
Gotcha. And if you’re in the Nashville area, do you ever do like let’s say somebody, I don’t know what the purpose would be other than, “Hey, I want to capture this, this is my son’s first hunt or whatever.” Do you do photography like that? Kind of like a contractor I guess.
Matt Carey (00:53:42):
Sure. Yeah. I mean all of my photo stuff is kind of to that realm, besides things I just take for fun. If you’ve got anything, whether you’re an outfitter or you’re just a family and you want to have your hunt captured, anything like that, I’d love to capture that and help you out and help you achieve your goals. Whether it’s for business or pleasure, I love to do it and I’d love to meet you. I love people are my favorite after ducks. So I’d love to meet you, hang out, even if you’re in Nashville or whatever, I’d love to meet you. So just shoot me a message on Instagram, reach out to me or if you get into Call the Wild and you have a question, feel free to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you with whatever. Or even if you’re interested in photography and you want to get into that, reach out to me, I’d love to talk to you.
Tommy Sessions (00:54:46):
Awesome. Your inbox may become full and you might be out of time.
Matt Carey (00:54:54):
I’ll answer every single message if you message me.
Tommy Sessions (00:54:57):
That’s cool. That’s awesome. This year. Let’s see, so waterfowl seasons starting. Just kind of wrap it up. What’s your plans for this season as far as, any big hunts coming up? Are you traveling or are you just sticking around the area? And then also we are three months, I think four months away from kind of show season if you will. Any plans for those two things?
Matt Carey (00:55:26):
Yeah. So as far as hunting goes, I mean our season here opens the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Tommy Sessions (00:55:36):
That’s rough. That’s a long time to wait.
Matt Carey (00:55:36):
It’s a long time compared to you guys. I mean-
Tommy Sessions (00:55:37):
Yeah. We’re already hunting, man.
Matt Carey (00:55:42):
I was out in Boise just a couple weeks ago and they had the youth hunt and we get to go see the kids out there. They had already limited out by about 8:00. I got real excited. I’m real ready, but I got to wait. I’ve already been on a handful of hunts. We went to Louisiana for a teal hunt a couple weeks back. That was awesome. We went with an outfitter out there called Shell Shocked, and I mean we shot a five man limit in less than an hour probably. But it was super fun. Alligators will steal your birds, but that’s a different problem.
Tommy Sessions (00:56:27):
That’s an experience.
Matt Carey (00:56:28):
Right. But yeah, so that was a really fun hunt. And then I’m looking forward to, I’m going down to Stuttgart in January for my birthday, looking forward to that. I’m turning 30 and my wife is like, “You got to do something fun. We’re going to do something fun, you should go on a hunt.” And I was like, “Okay, well what do you mean?” And she’s like, “You need to go. Where do you want to go?” And I was like, “All right, well let’s make it happen.” So I’m going down there with a handful of buddies and going to hunt down there for three days and it’ll probably be a mix of specs and duck hunts and we could be hunting flooded timber. We could be hunting in slews or fields, I really don’t know yet. But they’ve got all of that. So excited about that.
Tommy Sessions (00:57:21):
Cool. Sounds like an awesome plan.
Matt Carey (00:57:22):
Yeah. Might go to Arkansas another time before that. We are definitely going to go out to West Tennessee. We’ve got access to some private land out there that is kind of a new thing. So we’re excited to go try that. Got to go get some things set up for that and cut some trees down and brush and all that. But yeah, excited about that. I might go to Louisiana, might go to Oklahoma. There’s kind of a lot of things up in the air. A lot of people have invited me to things that aren’t solidified yet. I’ve got some friends in Texas that are talking about it. So as long as I can afford to buy all the licenses to go, I’d love to go.
Tommy Sessions (00:58:07):
Yeah, well even if you don’t go, I mean I’d love to just go call and check it out. That’s like Bill, when he went to New Mexico I was like, “Oh, I’ll go call for you in New Mexico.” But Joe was already headed with him and I was like, “Aw man, that would be so fun just to go do it.” But yeah, love it. What about shows, do you have any idea on shows yet that you’ll be at?
Matt Carey (00:58:36):
I know we were talking the other day about shows, I’m 90% sure that we’ll probably do that Delta Waterfowl show again. I’ll probably be at that one. We’re talking about the potential of being at the NWTF show here in Nashville in the spring. It is a turkey show so we’ll have turkey calls, but there’s a lot of duck call companies that show up there too. I know last year I met a lot of duck call companies out there, so we’re talking about doing that. If there’s one in Nashville I’ll for sure be there. And other than that, I’m not quite sure.
Tommy Sessions (00:59:20):
Cool. All right, well, I’m sure we will put something out on Instagram or social media in general of where we will be, and we being Slayer, not necessarily myself or whatever. And then you’ll be part of that and we’ll kind of promote it from there. And so people, if you guys do sign up for Call the Wild and you come out and you see like oh there’s a show and Slayer’s going to be there, come hit us up if you want some one on one time. I can’t really say that we’ll give you like an hour or anything like that, but you stop by the booth, you guys have questions on calling, on hunting techniques or tips or however, as long as we can answer those questions for you and give you a little bit of time, we’ll definitely take that time out of our day and help you out and be successful. But as far as that goes, I think we’ve pretty much dialed this Call the Wild in for anybody that’s wanting to get rolling on it. Do you have anything else, Matt, before we wrap this up?
Matt Carey (01:00:25):
I do believe when I was talking to Bill also, if you’re thinking about buying a call and you’re also thinking about doing Call the Wild, by you a call because in each call box comes a little code for Call the Wild. So check that out. And so yeah, if you buy a call, there’s a little sheet inside the call box that has a code that gets you set up for Call to Wild. It’s not free, but I believe it’s some sort of discount.
Tommy Sessions (01:00:59):
Kind of like a little Willy Wonka golden ticket inside that box.
Matt Carey (01:01:01):
Yeah.
Tommy Sessions (01:01:02):
Perfect. But in all of them, not just one.
Matt Carey (01:01:05):
Right.
Tommy Sessions (01:01:06):
Awesome. Okay. Well Matt, I appreciate you taking the time with us. Guys, like I said of the field, reach out to Matt if you have questions and then you can also reach out to me on Instagram. I don’t even know what my Instagram is. It’s like T-sess or something like that. I’m pretty bad at the whole social media thing. But you can find this through Slayer. But anyways, yeah, so reach out, check us out, go check out the Ranger Open Bore and good luck this waterfowl season. It’s right around the corner or it’s already happening. Thanks, guys.
