Episode 12 - Born for the Blind: Justin Martin’s Journey from Louisiana Woods to Duck Commander

Summary

Podcast Summary: Legends of the Wild – Episode 12

"Born for the Blind: Justin Martin’s Journey from Louisiana Woods to Duck Commander"

Host: Sam Soholt
Guest: Justin Martin (Duck Commander)
Release Date: November 19, 2025

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Overview

This episode of Legends of the Wild, hosted by Sam Soholt, offers an in-depth conversation with Justin Martin—a well-known face of Duck Commander—about heritage, growing up in Louisiana, the evolution of hunting culture, family, conservation, and his unique path in the outdoor world. Justin walks listeners through memories rooted in hunting camps, the value of tradition, his unplanned journey into the industry, and why he’s so passionate about passing down both skills and values to the next generation. The discussion weaves personal anecdotes, hunting tales, career lessons, and reflections on what it truly means to be “born for the blind.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Heritage of Field & Stream and Outdoor Storytelling

• Timestamps: [01:28] – [05:22]
• Both Sam and Justin share nostalgia for outdoor magazines like Field & Stream, which shaped their early conceptions of adventure and hunting culture.
  • “Our heritage is everything, especially in hunting world, man.” – Justin [01:28]
  • Stories from printed magazines offered a portal into adventure and inspired a generation before the digital era took hold.

Growing Up Outdoors in Louisiana

• Timestamps: [04:21] – [13:24]
• Justin recounts his upbringing in rural north Louisiana—parents working hard, grandparents teaching him to hunt and fish.
• Shifted from deer hunting/crappie fishing with grandparents to discovering duck hunting at age 10–11 through friends of his father.
• The moment duck hunting clicked:
  • “I said, I’m in, boys. Whatever this sport is, I am in. This is it… what I was born to do.” – Justin [13:15]
• The camaraderie and bonds of “Duck Eve” (duck season eve)—a family tradition that’s grown with each generation.

How Justin Landed at Duck Commander

• Timestamps: [10:56] – [25:22]
• Started as a hunting-obsessed kid, worked in local sporting goods, struck up a relationship with Willie Robertson while selling Duck Commander products.
• Academic detour: pursued biology, attempted prairie restoration, realized his calling was outdoors, not hospitals or academia.
• Legendary origin story: accepted an unpaid job cold-calling every Walmart in the country to get waterfowl products back on shelves.
  • “If you want a real exercise in futility, call the front desk at Walmart in 2008 and ask for the sporting goods manager.” – Justin [19:20]
• Gradually transitioned from sales to making and selling duck calls, eventually rising to general manager.

The Reality of Hunting, Content & Burnout

• Timestamps: [45:21] – [49:32]
• Justin discusses the realities of content creation—camera work, repetition, personal burnout, and needing to recharge.
  • “There’s only so much content... one guy can have, especially for a guy—people probably would never guess this—I’m an introvert from way back.” – Justin [46:04]
• Stepped back from management to focus on family and more intentional, meaningful projects—like taking kids outdoors, cooking, and celebrating lifestyle over results.

Conservation, Duck Stamps & Giving Back

• Timestamps: [50:23] – [54:16]
• Passionate segment about self-funding conservation, the Duck Stamp program, and giving back.
  • “As much as we take from them, please let me give this back.” – Justin [53:21]
• Justin’s tradition: buying extra stamps to pass to others, commemorating hunts, and reinforcing the importance of investing in the resource.
• Sam credits Justin’s influence in sparking the “Stamp It Forward” project.

Evolving Ethos: Selective Harvest & Mentorship

• Timestamps: [55:25] – [61:15]
• Talks about ethical progression—moving past stacking limits to prioritizing drake-only hunts, reducing harvest of hen ducks, and developing a camp fine system for accountability.
  • “None of us are doing this because we’re hungry. If you... want to go duck hunting because you’re starving, first off, I’m going to go to my freezer and get some just in case we have a terrible hunt.” – Justin [55:25]
• Addressing inclusivity and mentoring young/new hunters, supporting regulations that lower barriers while emphasizing self-regulation and responsibility.

Family, Legacy, and Documenting the Outdoors

• Timestamps: [27:24] – [32:00]
• Justin reflects on being present for his young twin sons, documenting memories, and cherishing the role of mentor/father.
  • “If somebody hadn’t poured into me at that age, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing... I’m getting to be that for my kids at this stage.” – Justin [27:42]
• Sam shares plans to create annual audio chronicles for his daughter’s childhood—a “time capsule” of the family journey.

Respect for Wildlife & Teaching the Next Generation

• Timestamps: [32:00] – [36:27]
• Importance of teaching respect (not fear) for all creatures.
• Justin’s approach to situations like encountering snakes—choosing to show respect and teach safety/identification.

Memorable Hunts & The Value of Experience

• Timestamps: [62:08] – [65:56]
• Justin and Sam swap stories, highlighting hunts that transcend success by numbers—like watching a “wall of mallards” in Kansas and deciding not to shoot due to their sheer number.
  • “There was just a wall of mallard duck... no way to not kill more than five. That’s how many were. It was a layered wall…” – Justin [64:54]
• Lessons in perspective, maturity, and capturing childlike wonder with guests—whether it’s a seasoned hunter, a newcomer, or a child’s first duck.

The Lasting Influence of Phil Robertson

• Timestamps: [65:04] – [67:45]
• Justin and Sam reflect on the personal and spiritual legacy of Phil Robertson—a commitment to share not just hunting skills but hope and faith with everyone encountered.
  • “He wanted to be remembered as someone who was unashamed to share Jesus… as much as he loved killing ducks, it didn’t come anywhere close to changing people’s lives forever.” – Justin [65:04]

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Standout Quotes & Moments

• On Heritage:
  "Between Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, all those game and fish mags as a child... that's what was on the table... you knew like once you got to hunting camp, you could go through 10 or 15 years worth of stories, man, because you never threw them away."
  — Justin [01:28]

• On Duck Hunting’s Appeal:
  "This is so far and beyond better than deer hunting. I can't even begin to explain... I'm in, boys. Whatever this sport is, I am in."
  — Justin [13:15]

• On Conservation:
  "As much as we take from them, please let me give this back."
  — Justin [53:21]

• On Mentorship & Legacy:
  "If somebody hadn't poured into me at that age, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. So... I'm getting to be that for my kids at this stage..."
  — Justin [27:42]

• Phil Robertson’s Wisdom:
  "Man, I sure hate to waste a sunrise."
  — Phil (as recounted by Justin) [64:54]

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Notable Sections (Timestamps)

• Heritage of Field & Stream, importance of storytelling: [01:28] – [05:22]
• Justin’s upbringing and transition to duck hunting: [10:56] – [13:24]
• Start at Duck Commander and the Walmart story: [16:47] – [21:03]
• Moving from sales to the call room; career evolution: [24:18] – [27:24]
• Family and mentoring the next generation: [27:24] – [32:00]
• Conservation and Duck Stamp role: [50:23] – [54:16]
• Mature hunter perspective and fine system for hens: [55:25] – [61:15]
• Memorable mallard hunt and Phil’s philosophy: [62:30] – [65:56]
• Phil’s spiritual legacy and impact: [65:04] – [67:45]

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Where to Find Justin Martin

• Social Media: @jmartinduckman (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)
• Still active in official Duck Commander channels and “Duck Call Room” podcast.

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Closing Message

Justin closes by encouraging listeners to approach him if seen in the field and by championing the diversity of hunting styles and experiences.

• “There’s a hundred different ways to do this. None of them are right. None of them are wrong. So just go have fun and enjoy the experience.” — Justin [70:08]

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For Outdoor Enthusiasts:
This episode is a vivid portrait of how the outdoors can shape a life, a family, and a philosophy. Through humor, humility, and heartfelt storytelling, Justin Martin exemplifies what it means to honor the past, mentor the future, and hunt not just for game, but for connection.

Transcript

[Sam]

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[Justin Martin]

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[Sam]

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[Justin Martin]

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[Sam]

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[Justin Martin]

All rights reserved.

[Sam]

Foreign this is Legends of the Wild presented by Field and Stream. Let's get into it. All right, Justin Martin, we are back. This is Legends of the Wild for Field and Stream. Man, I'm just, I'm excited to have you on. We've known each other for a while. We haven't been able to hang out as much as I'd like, but I appreciate you hopping on with me and just chatting for a while.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, man, happy to be here. Look, when you, when you requested this, I don't know, a little while ago, any chance that you can get to work with a company like Field and Stream, you know, an iconic part of my childhood, for sure you're going to jump at that moment, right? Like, it's just, I don't care how busy we are, I don't care what we're doing, I'm going to make the time to do something like that because, man, between building Stream, Outdoor Life, all those game and fish mags as a child, that was, that was just what was on the table. Like, that's what we read. That was, that was the stuff you look forward to when you walk to the mailbox with your mom and dad or your grandparents and, and you knew like once you got to hunting camp, you could go through 10 or 15 years worth of stories, man, because you never threw them away. And like, it was just such a cool thing. I'm so happy to see that the guys found the value in Field Stream and brought everything back with it. I think, you know, you guys are doing some really cool things with the, with the, with the huge production manuals, but then also just from a branding side and kind of telling the story of the past, man, it's. Our heritage is Everything, especially in hunting world, man. So super cool. Yeah.

[Sam]

I think just like you said, you know, you go to hunting camp and like nobody ever threw em away. It was like, it was like you could take a trip through time and read all these like aspirational stories because, you know, it's like a lot of, you know, pre social media, pre Internet for a lot of it, obviously. And you know, all we got to hear or read from like these big names in the industry was when they went on trips to these cool places or did these cool hunts or whatever, and then they got to sit down and tell that, kind of spin that yarn for us, like for everybody at home. But yeah, like you said, the fact that now Field and Stream is putting out like a really like coffee table quality, you know, issue every time they put one out, it's been fun to be a very small part of that. So this is cool.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, Same man. Even with the first one, when they launched the first one, they sent me like a huge case of them.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

And I basically left them like peanuts everywhere I went. Every, every camp I would end up in, I'd leave it on the T in the middle of the lodge or the camp or whatever. So I carried a box around of them in my truck. And that look, hey, for y' all listening, they paid me a dime, bro. Yeah, that's how much this kind of stuff means to me. Like that is, that is what heritage is and what, you know, now being a father, you see behind me a twin three year old. So I guess we need to update those pictures. But that was, that was back when they were their most user friendly right there.

[Sam]

Yeah, right.

[Justin Martin]

But that heritage is everything, man. And I want to be sure and share those stories with them. And you're right. Like as a, as a child growing up in northeast Louisiana, you know, my dad was a, a mill worker. My mom worked at a credit union. Like reading those stories was my really only connection to hunting outside of north Louisiana. Like that just wasn't. It wasn't feasible for us. It wasn't, it wasn't something that we could do, wasn't something we could plan to do. So like reading those old stories about Wyoming and Colorado and like these places that you knew existed but you hadn't been to or you had no idea what to expect, man. It just opened the doors to your imagination of what could be out there for you. And you know, now we live in 2025 where you can get to any of those in a matter of hours. It's, it's A crazy time. It's just a cool thing to look back on and think about for sure.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah. And like, the culture as a whole, like, for hunting, especially when it comes to like, out of state or like, like, you know, trip destination style hunting, if you want to call it that, it has changed so much even in the time since I kind of came into the industry in like 2011, you know, like, most the time you just hunted local, like, you know, and you kind of hunted everything or fished for everything. You kind of like you were a sportsman or woman, and you did all of it that was around you and you might take a trip, you know, every few years or whatever. But now, man, the culture of like, like you said, you can be anywhere in a day. And that culture has shifted so much. And so, you know, it's just it. It's been interesting to watch that, like, from all the stories of just like this select few people that got to go do all of these cool things to now, like, if you save up a little bit of money, you can go do all of those cool things that they used to write about.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, man. It really is a. And that is fun and super cool. But I gotta be honest, man. There's no place like, there's no place like home. There's no place like your home camp, your. Your core group of people. Like, no matter where you go and how cool the memory is, it doesn't compare to like, what we call Duck Eve here at our camp. Duck season Eve, man. Everybody gets together. It's the same 20 to 30 people. Other than we've all had children now. So, like, it's grown from 20 or 30 to 60, you know, just from. From reproduction. But, like, that is the core of what hunting is. And so it's just a really, really cool thing. And it's also always been so awesome that, that you guys over at Field and Stream celebrate that, man. And that's. And know that that's what that is like, we tell the story of the adventure, but the cooler of it is that Groot Mayup.

[Sam]

So, yeah, speaking of Duck Eve, right before we hopped on here, we were talking about, you know, there's duck seasons open in a lot of places in the country. Obviously. You know, I live in North Dakota. It's been open since the, you know, third week in September. But where. What's the feeling like where you're at right now? Because you're. You said you're a week and a day. So good.

[Justin Martin]

So good, so good.

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[Justin Martin]

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[Justin Martin]

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[Justin Martin]

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[Justin Martin]

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[Justin Martin]

Week in a day so we open November 22nd. We are busy making it rain the best we can. We have electricity going, we have diesel going. Trying to give these ducks plenty of habitat here to. To utilize once they get here. We have a lot of ducks right now. Don't know. I. This is the second straight day that it's mid-80s. So we caught them on this really that first kind of good cold front. We had a bunch of fowl show up of. Of all species like so that was cool to see. Like you saw a little bit of everything which was awesome. And. And we're just trying to hold all. Hopefully they don't get a suntan and mosquito bites and decide to tuck tail and go back north and you know, but we still got 10 days. So a lot of things can change in 10 days. They. They move on a whim. So but hopefully they're here not being messed with and they'll hang around and. And opener will be pretty strong. You know, regardless. We get to go duck hunting, man. So.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

You know.

[Sam]

Well, I'm not. I'm. I'm not going to be praying for like crazy cold weather, but I'll pray for some snow and some ice and stuff up here for you just to keep.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Push the birds down.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah. A couple feet of snow would be great.

[Sam]

That'd be fine.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, that'd be especially before Arkansas gets flooded. So that way they got to come past.

[Sam]

So what. What do you like to you like be called Justin or.

[Justin Martin]

It doesn't matter. Most the free world knows me as Martin but most of the people that call me Justin in this world are female. They're female and related to me. And so, you know, it doesn't matter to me.

[Sam]

I've.

[Justin Martin]

I grew up here in North Louisiana. Friday Night Lights, right? Like high school football, high school sports. You're known by the name on the back of your jersey. So I've been called Martin my whole life. I. I've never had Justin as a really an option. So it's, you know, then when the show came and all the things with Duck Commander, it just kind of all rolled over into. Yeah, just keep it Martin, man. So it's, It's. Yeah, that's what I'm known as. I don't care. Like I. You call me whatever, man. It doesn't matter to me, so.

[Sam]

Well, Martin, why don't you. I mean, I know a. Kind of a bit of your story because we got to meet in duck camp quite a few years ago now. But why don't you just bring people through? Like, you know, growing up in northern Louisiana and then, like, how do you go from that and like, rolling in through, you know, like, the passion of hunting and fishing? How did that take you to where you ended up today? Just kind of like run us through it all?

[Justin Martin]

Yeah. Okay. Well, I grew up, yeah. Born and raised right here in western Louisiana. There wasn't nothing they didn't bring me in for the show or nothing kind of goofy like that. Born and raised right here in West Monroe. Grew up actually a deer hunter. My grandparents were. They were deer hunters and crappie fishermen and. And that's what I grew up doing, man. I grew up. They basically. I'm not going to say they raised me, but by the time I was born, so I'm the last grandkid on one side of my family and next to last on the other side of my family. So I was an, in all sense, the baby of all things. But my grandparents had retired, so while my parents were busy working, providing for us, I stayed with my grandparents. I didn't have to do daycare or none of that kind of stuff. So I just got dropped off at Menlon Papa's and, man, I did everything they did right. Like, we. We crappie fish during the spring and summertime and worked in the garden. And then come fall and winter, we spent every, every chance at the deer camp and never really knew duck hunting until I was about 10 years old or so. 10 or 11 years old. And that's when some local guys that my dad worked with here at the paper mill, they're big duck hunters and they, you know, they knew that I Like, to hunt. Dad always told them about it, and, you know, they invited me to go with them. Of course, you know, looking back on it, they were probably being kind, but more so, you know, more is more. Right? Like, I've hunted with kids, right. You know, And. And. And, you know, everybody down here, especially back then, viewed duck hunting as a team sport. Like, it just, you know, we were. We were after a limit and. And that was it. So, yeah, I. I just remember I went with them and I was like, man, this is really cool. Like, this is a lot of fun. You sit here, get to talk. You're eating sausage in the blind. Like, this is. This is. This is so far and beyond better than deer hunting. I can't even begin to explain. So, like, how do I become a duck hunter? You know? So I left. I remember we got back and I told my mom and dad, like, I want a duck call. You know, I got to figure out how these boys do that. And so we went and bought my first duck call. Just like everybody else in Louisiana, most likely, probably. I hate. Ls Dr. 85.

[Sam]

Yep.

[Justin Martin]

Was the very first one I ever had. It wasn't long until I graduated to a duck commander because I was just learning what duck hunting was.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

Didn't really know anything about it because I hadn't been exposed to it and. But as I got exposed to it, ended up with a duck commander cut down Reacher, and you know, finally figured out, like, wow, these guys are in West Monroe. Like, and this was before Munro. West Monroe was half of what it is today. So it's like how these guys live here and I don't know who they are, how I not ever run into them. You know, I think I. That kind of deal. And so it was just kind of a weird deal. But I remember, like, I became obsessed with learning how to blow a duck haul. Like, it was. It was all I did. I walked around, I had that thing around my neck just trying to figure it out. And my parents would drop me off at a sanctuary area here, and I would go sit out there till dark with my duck call, trying to. Trying to figure out what them ducks were doing, man. And I'll never forget one day, you know, there were a few millards around out there. And I was just. I'd listen, I'd try to mimic. Listen, try to mimic. And two millards of drinking. A hand got up and flew over there towards me after I blew. And I was like, okay, maybe I'm getting this thing figured out, you know? And so next Duck season rolled around and I went back with one of the paper mill guys, Mr. Tommy Coleman. And we were in a skid blind in Holly Ridge, Louisiana. And it was foggy hot like the kind of day you're not supposed to kill a thing. And man, I heard a mallard drake up there in the fog. So I just started tooting on my duck call and the next thing I know, he just kind of appears right there over the decoys. And Mr. Tommy said, well, you called him, you shoot him. And I raised up my shot that mallard drake. And I said, I'm in, boys. Yet ever. Whatever this sport is, I am in. This is it. This is, this is what I was born to do, you know, kind of a thought process. And man, from that moment on, it just kind of grew and morphed. I was eat up with duck hunting. Worked as a guide some locally through my high school time just for shell money and you know, trying to hustle and pay for my, my newfound hobby and expense and you know, one thing led to another. I ended up working at a local sporting goods store when I graduated high school and starting college TP outdoors and started in the warehouse like any good grunt, loading corn loading, Quick creek, all the things. Finally an opening came up in the gun department and my work ethic and, you know, all the things got me nominated to swap from a grunt to a salesman. And in that process is where I met Willie. He had taken over. He had taken over Duck Commander from Phil and K. And we, we became good friends. I thought it was valuable to maintain a relationship with a manufacturer if I were going to sell his product, you know, so never really had any aspirations of one day working at Duck Commander. It just seemed like the right thing to do. And then, you know, I graduated college with a biology degree and my major professor asked me if I wanted to go to graduate school. And I was like, man, what is graduate school? I don't even know what that is. Like, this was. I was going to be a doctor and then I interned at a hospital and realized humans suck. And I was like, no man, I don't care.

[Sam]

It wasn't for you.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, I said, I don't care what they pay, man, but this ain't for me. Like I need to be, I need to be around happy people, not, not miserable people. And, and so I swapped to animal. Ended up in graduate school and you know, through that I ended up quitting at the sporting goods store because I was getting paid enough through graduate school to sure to do my prairie restoration. There, that's kind of a funny, funny project, right? Prairie restoration in Louisiana. You don't really, you don't really think about it. And to be fair, it was a complete failure. But.

[Sam]

Did you learn anything about.

[Justin Martin]

I did learn that years of repetitive farming is not good for the soil. You have to build back layer by layer. You can't just start and build a prairie where there was once one.

[Sam]

You mean you can't just replant native prairie grasses and hope that's going to go good?

[Justin Martin]

No. And as expensive, as expensive as switchgrass is, man, we went through some money on trying to redo that. The flowers, actually, the annual flowers did. What annual flowers do they grow, you know, because they're weeds, but the grasses, man. Yeah, that was, that was a tough one. That was a hard pill to swallow because your pride wants to let you do this, right? Like, and it, no, I don't care how much pride you got, that don't make nothing gross. So. But through that, you know, had, had kept my relationship with Willie and them going. Playing golf with them, playing poker with them, stuff like that. And I got to write my thesis and just called him and was like, hey man, I, I need a break. Like my brain is just mush. Do you have like some mind numbing labor I can do? And he's like, man, we really don't, we can't afford nothing. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you ain't got to pay me, man. Like, I let this work. Yeah, this is actually a favor to Bruce, so you don't have to pay me anything. And when he said, when he heard that, he was like, well then I can find you something to do. And so my first job, even though I wasn't paid at Duck Commander, was to sit down and call every Walmart in the country because Walmart had moved away from Waterfowl as a part of their, their sporting goods modular set. But they gave all the waterfowl companies the permission to call the sporting goods managers and if they wanted to assort for their store, you could. Yeah, and so I did, man, I got on the phone and, and I don't know if y' all know how many of them there are, but there's a bunch of them and, and you.

[Sam]

I want all of them.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, but if you want a real exercise in futility, call the front desk at Walmart in 2008 and ask for the sporting goods manager and see just how long it took you to get back there.

[Sam]

You know, I'm, it's, it's a Bummer that you don't have an actual, like, log of the time because I, the. I've called Walmart, you know, to talk to sporting goods, like, you know, department to be like, hey, can I buy a license in there? In there? Or like, you know, whatever the question is. And. But I'm curious the amount of time you spent on hold or got disconnected while you were on hold.

[Justin Martin]

A lot, A lot. And thank God, like, that was kind of. This is going to sound weird, but it was really kind of the infancy of the Internet still and email. But the world was starting to transition. And so some of them had email addresses, some of them had Walmart. So they'd be like, yeah, send me over whatever, you know, blah, blah, @walmart.com and I'm like, I don't even have an email. What is this? So I ended up getting my email address at Duck Commander and was able to shortcut some of it like that because the sporting goods managers that knew each other would kind of, hey, I'm putting this. They would talk to their friends and like, hey, I'm putting this in over here. Like y' all should look, you know, and so was able to bridge a lot of gaps, but, man, it was still like, oh, it was a lot. But even by the end of it, the, the managers ended up ordering so much sporty, like, waterfowl stuff that Walmart the next year revamped their waterfowl mod. They put it back in the stores. And so it was. I always tell everybody, like, I saved Duck Commander. You did? I mean, that's a lie. But, like, you know.

[Sam]

Well, you say, I don't know, Johnny O did Walmart.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, I was one of the voices, but, you know, there was a lot of us there trying to sell our products inside Walmart and really cool. Like, now they're revamping and going a little bit even more. They got a new guy there and so they're, they're really committing to the hunting space in Walmart again. So kind of cool, because that just like, dream, right? That's a fabric of our youth. Like, you could go to Walmart and see like the new hunting stuff. As a kid, there weren't a bunch of top independent retailers, and if there were, they were, you know, it was a day trip to go see them, like, you know, and so it's, you know, it's a lot. It's really cool to see a lot of the things from the past coming back into play. Yeah, I want, anyway. Yeah, you know, keep going, keep going. No, I was just going to say, from that point on, I was basically. When I got an email, Willie was like, well, I guess I need to pay you, but if I'm going to pay you, you know, you got to make a choice. Are you going to finish this out or are you going to do this? And sure, you know, thought about it and prayed about it and ended up kind of leaving my thesis about half done and on the sidelines because I thought this was a dream worth chasing. So. Yeah, yeah, especially because, like, I tell everybody, like, if I. If, like, graduate school would have been on my board of things to do, I would have never bailed on it. But, sure, it was just kind of happenstance and, you know, seemed like a good way to make some money and could still, like, write my own schedule and. And play outside. I mean, I got to play in the dirt for two and a half years. Like, that's. That's pretty. And get paid to do it. Like, that's. That's a. That was a big deal to a redneck like me and, you know, so I could still go back and do it, I guess. But no, I think I. I think for my future, I chose the right path or I didn't choose it. I think the good Lord put the right path in front of me and said, hey, why don't you give this a whirl?

[Sam]

Yeah, well, I mean, you were. You were smart enough to see the door to walk through. And, you know, since I think. I think there's a lot of times where, you know, people end up. They're. They're so ingrained in whatever path they had chose in the first place or that they were on that they don't see the off ramp to where, like this. Oh, this is how you actually get there. I'm taking the long way.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, most. Most will look at that board like I was talking about, and they can't get away from that board. And, you know, for me, that's never really been an issue of going off track and kind of following. Following what the Lord puts in front of me. But, you know, that one was a big step in faith because I was actually taking a pay cut by getting out of school to work for Duck Commander. I mean, I was. I had signed on for a whopping $21,000 a year, man. And, you know, it was like, that's big time here, man. I'm getting paid to go duck.

[Sam]

That's right.

[Justin Martin]

So it was really cool. Yes. I started off in sales, and you know how I ended up in the Duck call room was Gander Mountain at the time. Hollered at me as a sales guy for. They needed 6,000 duck calls for a Black Friday promo they were doing. They wanted 3,000 of one and 3,000 another. And like any good salesman, I said, absolutely, man. Send over the PO and we'll get it out. I had no idea what I was doing, really. I mean, I was just like, they want a six.

[Sam]

Get 6,000 duck calls.

[Justin Martin]

We'll make that happen. Yeah, if they want them, we'll get them. And, you know. So I called Jace, and he hung up on me, basically. He just. He said, ha. And then just hung up. Yeah, I called him again, same deal. And then I went and talked to Willie and was like, hey, man, I don't know what they're doing. They just keep hanging up on me. He's like, well, just go down there. And so I did. That was when we had offices kind of uptown at Willie's old house. And then the manufacturing was still right there, filling K's right outside the middle building, the whole. The whole deal. And so I pulled up down there and walked in there and, you know, went through my whole salesman spiel, tried to get them fired up. And I ended it with, like, I'm happy to help. And they were just like, can you even blow a duck call? And I was, well, I mean, I think I can. Like, I'm pretty good, I think. And Jason's deal was like, well, I've never heard you. I was like, well, yeah, I'm not gonna blow a duck call when I'm sitting in the blind with Phil Robertson and Jace Robertson. Are you kidding me? Like, I ain't got nothing to prove. Like, that's right. Let me get my shotgun, man. Like, I'm cool.

[Sam]

Like, yeah, I'll let the ducks do the talking that are Satan.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, he put one together and threw it to me, and I, you know, and he was like, oh, no, sit down, son. You're in. So Jay saw it as a way to limit his work, too. And so he said, tell Willie you ain't coming back up there. I was like. I said, you tell him. I said, I don't care. I'll sit right here. I don't. Whatever, right? Like, I'm a team player. Let's do this. And yeah, from that day forward, I still was in the sales role, but I did it from the duck call room. So it was kind of a, you know, who better to sell the stuff than the guy making it, too? So, I mean, there wasn't A. There wasn't a question about the product you could ask. I didn't know. And, you know, so it was a cool experience. And then, you know, kind of carried a bunch of different roles in the company till I ended up at general manager of the company. And after eight years of that, I've recently stepped away from that role, too. So kind of a. Kind of a free agent in the world now. Not a free agent. I still work for Duck Commander. I just don't work at Duck Commander, if that makes sense. Like, still. Still on board as a host and ambassador, but kind of doing my own thing. Really loving where the Duck Call Room podcast is going to and the ministry aspect that it provides. So really just kind of leaning full force into that kind of things. You know, Phil did a lot of things for. For us, paved the way in the duck world, but most importantly, man, he paved the way on sharing the gospel. So any. Any which way that we can find to share that gospel and. And get folks the hope that we have, and we're going to do it. So it's really kind of fun doing this, still doing that, but doing this. And it's provided me a lot more time at home with them two little rug wraps right now. And I'm loving it because they're three and they are. They're eat up with all of it, right? Like, that'll go camp, go put out corn, go, you know, Robbie Kawasaki, like, all the. They want to do everything I'm doing, and I'm here for it.

[Sam]

So that's awesome. I mean, you know, again, like, just seeing the opportunity to. To still do the things you love, but then, like, go spend the time doing things that you. You really never going to regret doing. Like, just, you know, having that extra time to go be like, yes, we can go do that. Yes, we can go do that. Instead of.

[Justin Martin]

Absolutely. You want. You want more powdered donuts? Absolutely. Let's go. I know mom won't let you have them at the house, but there are no rules at the camp, so powdered donuts are in, man. You know, and so, yeah, it's fun, man. And again, if somebody hadn't poured into me at that age, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. So, you know, in my case, it was my grandparents and my boy's case, my. You know, we lost my dad back in 2020, and mom's still here. But mom was never a huge outdoors woman. I mean, she. She'd go fishing with you all day long, but hunting? No, that. That Wasn't her thing being cold? No, not her. She.

[Sam]

I'm out.

[Justin Martin]

All right. So, yeah, she's part lizard, man. She likes the heat. So, uh, you know, it's. So. It's really cool that I'm getting to be that for my kids at this stage where, you know, a lot of folks don't. You don't get that opportunity because we're. We're chained to a 9 to 5 or, you know, chained to something else. So the fact that I'm not taking a second of it for granted, man, we. We blow and go, and I burn through gasoline and I'll go broke doing this stuff with them, just. Just to lay the foundation for sure.

[Sam]

Yep, Absolutely. I feel the same way. I just, you know, just became a dad not too long ago, so I'm. I'm in the same fuse, man. I just can't.

[Justin Martin]

It gets better.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

I can't wait. She's. Yeah, my little girl is. She's already, you know, she looks, whatever, not quite a year and a half, but she's just. She's feral already. So we're going to. We're going to have lots of fun outside.

[Justin Martin]

Well, you're almost out of the bad part. I tell her about that first 18 months. I don't really even remember. Like, I mean, I know what happened because I got pictures, but I don't. I don't know if it's like some kind of weird trauma response or, like, you just kind of things. You're like, yeah, gets up there.

[Sam]

And so it's funny you say that, because a friend and I. Yeah, he. He's done a bunch of deep dives on, like, how the brain works when you're in flight or flight response. And because you're going through such a crazy time, your prefrontal cortex actually shuts off. So you're, one, you're not quite in control of the decisions you're making. And two, the memory of those decisions, gone.

[Justin Martin]

Good. Because I like these that I got right now.

[Sam]

Right.

[Justin Martin]

Like, these are really cool and a whole lot of fun, which is why I'm being so intentional about documenting them. And, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are weird in today's world, you know, And I get it about, you know, not putting your kids online and stuff like that. And, you know, if. If evil wants to find them, it's going to find them. My deal is I'm trying to create a memory bank for them that I didn't have. Like, we didn't have access to that. When I was growing up 40 years ago, you had a big, huge home held camcorder and, and fun savers. And so like, you look back on it and they're all like bigfoot pictures and videos like you don't even know. You can't even tell if you were having a good time.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

So the fact that this technology exists, I want to one day be able to lead them with a bank of. Man, look at all the stuff we did. Man, look at, you know, you may not. You may grow up and not enjoy hunting or fishing, but it's not because you weren't exposed to it. And like, you know, so it's just really more of a deal for them. I'd rather give them that than like a photo album. So I would rather be able to hand this over.

[Sam]

So. Yeah, I mean, now that. So being the host of a podcast, having access to podcast equipment and all this, you know, like, knowing how to run video cameras through my career and whatever. So my wife and I are going to do a podcast every year of our kid when, if we have more kids, every kid's life. And so we can sit there and talk about how we felt through the whole experience and everything that they did in the first year, in the second year and, you know, go through it. Because could you like. I couldn't even imagine having a recording even. Even if it's not on video, just a recording of, you know, my parents, they're just kids when they have kids, you know, so like, you know, parents are always so much older than you see. That's how you see them. But like, to have that recording or something to watch back and go, man, they were just young and figuring it out just like everybody else and I, you know, so I think that'll be a cool time capsule to, to give to our kids when they get a little bit older. But yeah, like you said, I, I'm happy to document it all and just have it all out there.

[Justin Martin]

Absolutely, man. And I think too, in the world in which we live in, where the outdoor lifestyle is, it's not growing necessarily to let other people see that this lifestyle is okay and to include your kids in it is okay. And they turn out to be fine human beings, I think is kind of, you know, uplifting to them. And yeah, yeah, because we get a lot of pressure from all different work. You know, don't show kids animals and don't do this and don't. And I'm like, man, I want them to love and respect everything. Not even if we Hunt it and we take it, that's fine. But like, you got to have a certain level of respect built in for, for all God's creatures. Like. And so, you know, I just had a video go kind of dumb with a cotton mouth that I didn't kill. But that was just to kind of show that I didn't want them thinking that that was okay at 3 years old for them to do something like that. Like, sure, here man, we can just move him out of the way, he's doing his thing and like, just get him out the way and let him go. And yeah, we'll get to the level of where, man, if you decide this is a threat, go ahead. But I didn't see this little cottonmouth as a threat today. I thought he was just trying to do his thing. So I'm gonna let him do his thing and tried to really explain that to them. And you know, because I, to be fair, I like playing with all those critters, but I just don't play with them in front of the boys. Like, I don't pick them up or handle them because I don't want them to say, oh, well, daddy did it and you know, something like that. So, yeah, we get respect and admire and move on. The only thing they kill is mosquitoes so far.

[Sam]

So my, my nephew, he's now 11, but my brother had like a. Well, he, he was, he likes catching everything, right? And so he was, he caught a snake at school when he was in third grade or second grade or whenever it was, you know, went back. There was some four way sheet of plywood behind the school and he lifted it up and there's a snake underneath and he picked it up and got in trouble. So my brother had to do like a, like an hour long conversation with him about like, all right, we're gonna work on identifying snakes because the last thing I need you to do as a seven year old is pick up a rattlesnake at school and have somebody get bit or you get bit or whatever. So he goes through, okay, this is a pine snake and this is a bull snake. And this is a rattlesnake, you know, goes through the whole thing. It has, you know, my nephew identify him on the pictures and whatever the next day he catch him and his buddies, there's a pond close to where they live. They catch like a six foot bull snake and he's like, oh, he's like, it swam by, saw real good that it didn't have any rattles on the end. So we caught it.

[Justin Martin]

I love it, man. That's what I hope to raise. I hope to raise kids that aren't scared of things that there is. You don't have to be scared of something to give it respect. And that's what I want them to do. Like, we can respect it without fearing it. And that's kind of where I. It's weird, though, like, the innate fears that are born into him because one of my sons is. He does not. Like a spider web, but he doesn't know that spiders can hurt you. Like, he has no idea. He hasn't been taught that. He just knows, like, this is not cool. Like, I don't know what this is, but I know I don't like it, you know, and so it's just kind of weird what is born into us as humans, I guess. You know, if you believe in all that, from kind of an evolutionary tree, I guess. Yeah. Of how those. Those fears and just kind of natural reactions get in. But while my other one, though, will touch anything.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

You know, like the other day he was down there poking at this deal, calling it an ant. And I looked, and it's just a big old red boss. But I don't know how he didn't get stung. He should have been stung, but I was like, oh, God. But he just, you know, he. He loves it all. I want to see it all. No fear whatsoever. Mainly because there's been no consequences.

[Sam]

You're right. So, yeah, goodness, like all of us, we. We all find something that's going to sting us or bite us or whatever.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

And then you just. Like, I do have a certain amount of hatred for paper wasp. I really do, because they have gotten me my whole life, and so I despise them to. To the ends of my beings. But I don't intentionally go just, you know, kill them or nothing like that, but I don't like them. But that's because I know that, you know, you play one too many of them, you don't get bit. Right. Oh, man.

[Sam]

Yeah. Well, I wanted to tell one story from my perspective of you when we. When I came down. So I got. I got hired to do a photo job for yeti, which was to go to West Monroe. And YETI was dropping a whole bunch of new products, so they had, like, the brand new hopper that had never been released, and they had a bunch of new colors of drinkware and all sorts of stuff. And with the duck commander crew being YETI ambassadors, it was, you know, my job to go down there with buddy Ben o' Brien, who was in charge of that whole thing at that point, and Ben.

[Justin Martin]

Yo, baby. Benny.

[Sam]

O. B. Go. You go Duck hunt for a couple days. And when the opportunity came up, man, I can't. Like, I. You know, I've been able to do a lot of cool stuff just through the, you know, carrying a camera around, but the. The Duckman thing had been so ingrained in my blood since I was, like, 10, that that just the chance to even, like, show up and, like, see these guys and all of you in person was like, I don't. I don't know. I don't know how I'm gonna react, like, when I'm in the field. And so, you know, flew down there, got in the blind, you know, hunted with the whole crew, you guys and Phil and Jace and the whole gang. And the. We hunted in the morning and the evening. I got made fun of a little bit for the duck hat that I wore, which was. I thought was hilarious, you know, the whole thing. I got, like. I got the whole, like, duck camp experience. But the next day, we ended up hunting. It was just with you and a couple other guys, Phil and Jason, the rest of the crew were gonna hunt as well, but we ended up in a pit in a rice field. And I had bought a license. I hadn't planned on hunting, but I bought a license just to be there, just in case, you know, there was opportunity. And you kept going. You kept. There'd be a flock of ducks coming in. You kept going, hey, Sam, just take the gun. Take the gun. I'm like, no, I'm. I'm shooting photos. I'm shooting photos. And finally Ben goes, just take the gun. And I took the gun, started shooting ducks, and you were like, man, I was watching you all yesterday, every time a flock and all you. I could tell you were just itching to actually be shooting something. So I appreciate you noticing how much I wanted to, you know, shoot some ducks down there.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah. Heck, yeah, man. And that was a really cool morning. Like, I never. That's one of those. That's a core memory for me, you know, we shot a bunch of mallard drakes, and we. We shot what I like to call the royal flush. We shot canvas back drakes and pin and pintail drake. So it was kind of a weird morning, like, on the fact that I went there only because I thought I knew we could shoot our guns because we hadn't hunted that field in a couple of weeks. And I was like, we'll just go have fun. Whatever we kill, we kill Whatever. And then to. To have those pictures, like that dog that you photographed this summer just passed away. And. And that's technically my brother's dog, but she lived with me, like, most of the year or during hunting season because he can't hunt as much as I can, so he always just wanted her hunting. And the. You know, when she passed away this year, my nieces did a little service for whatever, you know, like, because that was their dog. That was the dog of their childhood. And we all. We all have that dog. And the picture that they decided to use for the canvas was one of the ones you shot with her carrying back. Yeah, her carrying back. The. One of the canvas back. Drake's, so.

[Sam]

Oh, that's so cool. And for me, that's the first can that I cams back Drake that I had ever shot. Because usually up north, the season would close so early that, you know, it was always. Inevitably, it would be the next day that the canvas backs would come through and we'd have them all over the decoys and, say, the pintails, you know, it was the first time I'd ever been able to go down and actually, like, you know, shoot. Like you said, that flush of ducks, it was very, very cool. Morning. So that's. That's fun to know that that's one of the photos they chose.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, man. That was the one that they printed out on the canvas, was her coming back to the rice field with a canvas back drape from that morning. And I mean, it's one of them deals, like, soon I see it, I go straight back to that hunt, and it's just like. But I do that a lot with people that come to document or I'm trying to make sure to include them in the experience. Now, outside of your job, your job, I get it. That's what they're paying you to be here for. But take his point of gauge and kill you one, right? Like, if you. If you want to. There was, you know, there was one. We did another one. It's funny, because a lot of these revolve around Yeti, but we did one a couple of years ago where Yeti brought down a chef, Bradley Own from, like, Massachusetts. Well, on that trip was Andrew, who does what Ben does now. He came, but then they also brought a girl named Chelsea from Creative, and she's not a hunter, but respects the hunting lifestyle. And she sat there in the blind with us for two days. And on that second day, I finally talked her into it. I was like, hey, Chelsea, you can join this party and I think Chelsea is officially like 2 for 2. She shot a shotgun twice, and one was a widget Drake and one was a mallard Drake. Oh, man. I was like, there. You don't get no better duck hunting than this, Bill. So you will quit. So you're two for two, and these are the two you got. I probably just call it good, man. Hang up your spurs and, yeah, and head out west. So. But I am, I'm known for that. I like, I like seeing people do stuff that either they do a lot, but they get to do it somewhere else or that they've never done before. And because I like to see that childlike look in their face because it is so easy for guys like you, for myself, to take a lot of this for granted. Like, we, we get to do it every day. So, you know, it's some of the, some of the best hunts of people's lives. I don't even, they don't even make my memory bank right. Like, I don't even remember that hot. So when you get to try to make that impression on somebody, I think it's vital that you should, you should at least offer it. They, they have every right to decline, and I'm never going to force you to, but I will extend the offer to.

[Sam]

Well, just, just know that doesn't go unnoticed because, you know, like, yeah, I, like, I've been on a lot of hunts and stuff, and just to, to have to be able to like, jump in and like, be, you know, be part of it was like, yep, this is, this is kind of why I wanted to come down and do this. Like, yes, I'm coming down to do my job, but, man, to just, you know, to actually also hunt with, like, the crew that I grew up watching hunt, I was like, that's, you know, that's pretty special.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, man. I hope to do it every year with new people. Like, I, I. And that's what's so fun about my kids now being three is like, I'm about to get to start over on a lot of this stuff. And that, that excites me. Like, you know, I, I could quit hunting, duck hunting tomorrow. And there's a lot of people that have to hunt for a really long time to do the things I've done. Duck hunting, you know, and so the fact that I get to basically start over from scratch with, with two, two blank slates is going to be, going to be super fun. And, man, it's something I'm, I am just, I am so looking forward to and especially now where the, you know, the shotguns and everything have gotten so much better than when we were kids and the small bores and the, and the small shells are so much better.

[Sam]

Like you can, I was just going to say like the shell, the shell manufacturing has changed so drastically that even if you shoot an old gun, but you're shooting a new kind of high performance shell, man, you can just do some damage with a 20 or 28 or you know, whatever.

[Justin Martin]

I cannot wait till me and them are in a, in a, in a standing by a tree with 28 gauges and shooting mallard ducks. That is, that is. Oh man, I don't want to, I don't want to wish time by.

[Sam]

No.

[Justin Martin]

But the fact that we can all now shoot the same gun and the same shells and, and it can be effective is. What a time to be alive, man. What a time to be a duck hunter.

[Sam]

Yeah, right.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

It's like even now they've got, you know, I've been using a 410 a little bit for turkey hunting and they've, you know, some of the manufacturers now make a semi auto 410 and it's like, man, that would be a sweet little like youth, you know, duck gun to get going, man.

[Justin Martin]

I keep banging the drum with Benelli, man. And they just keep saying no and, and that's fine.

[Sam]

Yeah. And I get it. The market, you know, the market for that is pretty small.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah. Well, I would want it. It's not very desirable.

[Sam]

Right.

[Justin Martin]

Especially at that price point for them to make it with the quality that they're going to make.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

And so, yeah, I love it. But the 28, man, 28 with a two and three quarter number six. It's fine. It will, it'll kill them graveyard dead. And it does not have very much recoil at all. So that's, that's the cool thing about that.

[Sam]

One thing I wanted to ask you about was so beads, you know, I've, I've gotten to it a couple times here and there and have to take, you know, just a breather and just kind of try to look at life with like a 30,000 foot view so I don't get too caught up in the weeds. But when you're so immersed in the, you're hunting, you know, as many days as you can a year, you're also creating content around hunting as many days as you can a year. So it's, there's a lot of like backend business stuff that happens that nobody ever sees. Everyone just gets to see the all the fun stuff. Um, did you ever find yourself, like, burnt out at any point where you had to, like, not reevaluate, but, like, how do you. How'd you find the balance if you ever got there or, like, get back being like, I love this.

[Justin Martin]

Absolutely. It's actually one of the reasons for the changes that I made was there's only so much. So much content, and in front of cameras one guy can have, especially for a guy. A lot of people probably would never guess this about me, but, man, I'm an introvert from way back, like. And that's been one of the hardest things about being a parent is having somebody when you're introverted and you've got two, two, two small children that completely depend on you for everything. For me, outside of the physical exhaustion, that is mentally exhausting because I'm used to. I got used to for 38 and a half years when I would get done coming home and sitting in the dark, right? Like, I just. I needed to unwind and like, just kind of be with myself and my thoughts. And so now, you know, you come home and, man, I got. I got two wives fully dependent on me and, you know, and so, yeah, I did get burnout. And so being able to step away from some of that has actually helped with the burnout and getting to make the content that I desire to make now. Not. Not content that I have to make, but now I get to make the content I want to make, which is a heavy inclusion on outdoor lifestyle with kids, a lot more cooking. I'm not a chef, but, man, I love to cook. I love. I love cooking the things that we chase. And I love doing different things with it, new things with it. And. And I'm really at the heart of me a super nerd. So I like talking about plants and trees and habitat and, you know, is it easy to go plan a food plot for ducks with rice or corn or something like that and then use it? Absolutely. But to me, it's way cooler to use what God put there and use the smart weeds and the springle tops and the wild millets and. And all the things to. To make ducks do what they did before we were even here, because that's the stuff that they had to live on before humans rolled around here and before cultivated grain was even a thing. So, yeah, I get to make that kind of stuff now and get to, you know, with all of my partnerships, I get to give back. Last year we had a kid for a realtree deal that was called first. Like, so realtree did a full series last year. First deer, first ducks, first turkeys, first everything. And so I got to host a young man to shoot his first ever duck. And you know, again, seeing that excitement through a kid's eyes, man. And. And they were able to let his dad and granddad come and be a part of it too. So they got to sit and watch the whole process. And so being able to step away and have more time for projects like that has been really fulfilling and kind of a re. Energized me in what I'm doing rather than just going and shooting ducks and making it look good on camera. You know, I think you can attest and a lot killing ducks is not that hard, but getting them centered up for camera is pretty difficult.

[Sam]

Different story.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, yeah, it's a different. It's that camera saves a lot of them's lives. Yeah. If you were just duck hunting, you would have shot and it would have been fine and it would have been great. But, you know, trying to get right down the gun barrel and.

[Sam]

And all the pedaling over the decoys and.

[Justin Martin]

Yep, yeah, man, it just. Or if it's just a little too dark, you know, or, you know, a little, you know, whatever, you know, I'm so in tune with my guy. He's telling me if it's in focus or not. Like, wait, wait, wait, I got to grab. And then sometimes they get behind trees and then they're gone. And so you were lucky from a point that none of us. I don't think anybody duck hunts because they're hungry anymore. I think it's all to a. Enjoy the time out there. You eat the ducks, obviously, but it's really to enjoy the time in God's creation and the people that you're there with and ultimately to give back through Pittman Robertson dollars to the ducks like, you know, we are. It's pretty cool to think about the duck hunting is almost 100% self funded, you know, through those.

[Sam]

Robertson.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, man. It's a pretty cool deal. Like we take care of ourselves and that's a pretty cool. Considering there's only from year to year one to 1.5 million of us that do all that. That's pretty cool deal that we can fund all these projects ourselves. So. Yeah.

[Sam]

Yeah. Well, you actually. You actually one of the people that helped inspire the Stamp it Forward project that we've done at public land tees. And I say that because there had been a couple of years where had just talked to people about or had listened to people talk about the Duck stamp and conservation funding leading up to when we launched the project. But you had said, I just buy 10 every year because then I give them out to buddies or whatever. And I was like, man, because a long time ago, I think, you know, I'd kind of come up with some sort of a concept and had talked to you at game fair in Minnesota about maybe doing something. You're like, oh, Yeah, I buy 10 every year and then if somebody forgets one, then I can hand it out, you know, and it's, you know, 250 bucks that I know it's going to the ducks. So, like, you know, again, seems like.

[Justin Martin]

A good investment to make.

[Sam]

100. Yep. 100%.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah. It was always, yeah. My way of like, well, if I'm do this for a living, this seems like a pretty cheap expense. And they're like, yeah, and you don't ever want that guy to show up that can't go duck hunting because he doesn't have a federal duck stand. Like, you know, and so, yeah, I always kept a bunch of extras and if I ate them, I ate them. If I didn't, whatever, it didn't matter. Then you had. Well, yeah, now, like on that mount behind me, on this one right here, like, I take the duck snap from that ear and staple up under the bottom of the mount so that I know when it was killed. So, you know, if my kids end up with these mounts or grandkids or something, they'll be able to look back and see, man, that was 2016. You know, that was, that was way back in the 20s, you know, or whatever. So it's, you know, they're kind of commemorative and it's a really cool deal where now we're to a point where you can get the thing digitally too. Now me, I still want the paper stamp, but the fact that you can get it digitally, if you do forget it or if you, you know, something like that you can get online and grab one real quick is a really, you know, thank you. I don't say this often, but thank you, government, for getting with the times and making it worse. Yeah. Where somebody's hunt isn't ruined because of one small technicality.

[Sam]

So, yeah, and I was, I was, I'm really excited that they kept. So, like, if you buy your E stamp, it's still. The physical stamp is still shipped to you in. So after the season. And the reason they did that was because when they had it where the. They would mail the physical stamp right away, but you had the E stamp that lasted 45 days they were catching people that were double dipping and so they would buy the. And Right. And so, you know, last spring when everybody got their duck stamp in the mail after buying the E stamp they were like, well, thanks, you know, thanks for this. So late. And then had to educate some people on the fact that no, this was designed for this reason because that way more money got infused into the system.

[Justin Martin]

So yeah, and now like I buy the boys one every year so they'll have a full duck stamp collection from when they were, you know, 0 to 15 or 16 when they start doing whatever they want to and they may take them and throw them away, but again, it's $50 for the ducks, right? Exactly as much as we take from them. Please let me give this back. Well, yeah, so yeah, that's one of those kind of deal. I think it's one of those deals where, you know, a lot of times in this day and age we monetize off the resource but we don't quite give enough back of, of what it brings to us. So I always want to make sure I'm mindful and giving that back to them because I don't if we're just straight take, then this is not sustainable. Like this whole model is not sustainable and I want my kids to have the opportunity to do what we do. So.

[Sam]

Yeah, well, there's been a lot of careers and companies and, and, and stuff that have literally like have built on the backs of the ducks. And so to not, to not realize that and, and understand that investing it, whether it be a duck stamp or some other form of conservation, you know, funding or giving back, to not realize that that is an investment in like, for companies especially to realize that that's not an investment in future customers, like is a complete miss to me. So I always try to explain it in business terms for people that are like, wow, we don't want to donate, you know, 500 bucks to this be like, listen, the more money that we can put back into habitat and you know, protecting the flyways and making sure that there's biologists that are getting paid so we can set proper regulations and limits and all this stuff, the more wildlife is going to be on the landscape. That gives more opportunity for people to go out and enjoy these things that we enjoy and then that leads to more people buying stuff from the companies who are investing back into the habitat. So it's, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. As long as we, as long as we have people that are, you know, running these companies that understand that. So it's, you know, it's cool to hear you say that.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah. And that's like, even for this year for us, like we're doing a self imposed deal where, you know, you're going to agree to our fine structure for brown ducks, you know, just to try to save brown ducks. Like, again, I don't think any of us are doing this because we're hungry. If you show up to me and you want to go duck hunting because you're starving, first off, I'm going, I'm going to go to my freezer and get some just in case we have a terrible hot. Like, we will take care of you from the food and already. But there's still no reason to intentionally, in my opinion, shoot a brown one. Now if you. Accidents happen, man. I can't tell you how many times I've squeezed off on a mallard drake and there was a hand behind him that I never saw. And then you look out there and you're like, yeah, okay, all right, whatever. You know, that's just part of it. Accidents happen. But if you intentionally squeeze down on one for, for mallards and pintails, you're going to get clipped for 20. I like for Woody's. For Woody's, you're going to get clipped for 10. And then for all others, you're going to get clipped for five. And then we're going to take the pot at the end of the year and either buy a bunch of duck stamps or I don't know what we're going to do, but that money will go straight back to the ducks. And yeah. I'm so passive or a project or whatever. Yeah. It ain't for us. We don't care. But there's. That's weird, man. It's a weird deal where like, you know, the mallard limit is four and I would rather leave with three drakes and no hands, then three drakes and one hands just to say I got that L word, you know, so. Sure. And hey, look, don't hear me saying I've been like that my whole life because I haven't.

[Sam]

No.

[Justin Martin]

None of us, you know. Yeah. And so it's just where I have matured to. Yeah. And people make fun of me because I get so picky on even shooting like gadwall drakes and stuff like that. But I'm like, man, I just, I don't know. I know that the limiting factor is the brown ones.

[Sam]

And like you said, done. You know, 10 lifetimes worth of duck hunting, you know, compared to most People. So you get to a point where it's just like, I'm just, I'm here to enjoy this experience. And if I have the right ducks doing the right thing in front of my barrel that day, you know, then I'll be shot.

[Justin Martin]

And that's what I want out of the experience. I want everybody to go duck hunting. And you get what you want from that experience. My experience is shoot the boys and, and leave it at that, you know, And I, to quote one of my professors from college, sperm is cheap. Like one, one male can service a lot of females, but there's only so many, you know, that age old saying, dead hens don't lay eggs, you know, and so it's, I don't know, it's just where I'm at, man. I'm way more interested in baby ducks than I am grown ducks at this point in my life. Maybe it gets. Because I got two little baby ducks now, I don't know. But it's just kind of a, kind of a weird deal, man. And part of my master's project too was doing wood duck hens, doing nesting boxes. And so I got to become really, really close with some wood duck hens that nested in the same box year after year. I felt like we were friends, like we were cool and knew each other. So when I see a woody hen, I'm just like, oh yeah, I just want to go there and pet her, you know, Like, I'm just like, oh. And so it's. No, man, it's cool. But that's just one of them deals. Like, I think for the most part this is a saying that transcends all aspects of life is, you know, be the change you want to see. And so that's a change I'd love to see again. I don't want them to put any regulations on us because I think more regulations limit new hunters because then they, they're scared. But I do think that we can regulate ourselves to a better spot as a hunter.

[Sam]

So, you know, and there's been some interesting legislation that's happened in the north country. It happened in South Dakota, where my parents still live. But they started to do, I'm trying to think if they call it Splash3 or Splash5, but they changed it. So in, in order to help people who don't do a lot of duck hunting and get new hunters into it so people don't feel so scared of, of shooting, you know, the wrong duck or the whatever. So if you, I think it's a splash three. So you can. If. If three ducks come in, you shoot all three. Or, you know, you have three little groups come in and you shoot, you know, a pintail and a mallard hen and whatever. You only get three for the day. And so it limits the exposure to, like, you know, no one's going out and killing six, you know, hand mallards.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

But it's. It's lowering that barrier to entry for people who are just getting into it, trying to figure it out, and so they're not scared to pull the trigger on something that just drops into the decoys. So there's.

[Justin Martin]

That's fun.

[Sam]

Yeah. I think there's some stuff happening that might be kind of cool for the future.

[Justin Martin]

And I'm looking forward to it, too. Like, the daylight ducks, like, I'm looking forward to, with the fine structure, how quick people are to shoot. Are they going to take that extra half? Oh, yeah, I can. To identify what's what, you know?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

And it'll be fun. Man. I just. I don't know. I just want to do better. Like, at this age of my life, I want to do better. I've been. I've been the one guilty of piling them up as high as you can, stack them, right. Like, hey, let's. Let's do it. I've done it. I'm past that. So how do we, you know, how do we tell a different story knowing that that is still going to exist because it existed for me, so. Well, that's a natural progression. Exactly. Yeah.

[Sam]

It's. Everybody's at a different part of their, you know, hunting or outdoor journey, you know, whatever, you know, And. And at some point when you're. When you're younger and. And just full of that fire like that, all you want to do is stack limits and, you know, have the. Have, like, do that thing because it's. That's what you're going for. And then you get to a point where it's like that sunrise and those birds coming. It was pretty. Pretty special this morning. Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

Oh, yeah. You just sit back and you're like, this is all right here. Yeah. And I just. I. Anymore. I tell everybody, they're like, why aren't you shooting? I'm like, man, I just like tricking them. Like, I tricked him. I made him think these pieces of plastic were real ducks. And I did my job. Like, he can. He can go on about his business. I don't. I say that Mallard Drake ain't gonna get away from me. But. But there are some other ones that I'm they're like, why didn't you shoot him? I'm like, I just got too caught up in it, man. I didn't. I just. I wanted to watch him. Especially pintails, like pintail Drake, just floating in the way. They kind of just. They don't really try very hard. Just kind of, you know, gracefully go wherever they want to. I will be guilty of just, yeah, you know, like gawking at them. I'm just like, ah, man. And so. And the little green wings don't get that pass either because I like eating ducks. So.

[Sam]

So before I let you jump off here, I. I wanted to ask. So you've been on, you know, hundreds of hunts with all these guys in the crew and camp and like the low, you know, the hometown crowd, you know, over the years. Do you have. I'm sure you've been asked this before, but do you have one that stands out above the rest where just something about it stuck out?

[Justin Martin]

Oh, man, there. Yeah, there's, you know, there's core memory ones for sure. Trying to think. Probably. I don't know, man, It'd be hard to pick a favorite. But there's one that. There's. There's one that I remember kind of like it was yesterday. Me, Phil, Jace, we were in southeast Kansas hunting with our buddy Barrett down there and are up there, I guess from here. And man, it was just. Southeast Kansas is like this great anomaly in the world of duck hunting. Louisiana, it's all about daylight. It's all about the first hour. Like you. You know what's going to happen with that first hour kind of. And southeast Kansas is like, you get one bunch early and it's going to be a good one, but then you are going to sit there for the most part and twiddle your thumbs till about 2pm yeah, them ducks just don't move like it's a weird. You don't even see them like you. And then the next thing you know, the sky turns to ducks. Well, Phil, you know, me and Jace were like, bill, why don't we just sleep? Like we'll go out at arne London at 1:30. And Phil had the line of watcher, hate to waste a good sunrise. And so, you know, we're like, all right, we're going, whatever. So we got up and we went and we were hunting a real small little timber hole. And I don't know how many mallard ducks come in there, but I know they just come in and they kept coming and they kept coming. And then Phil looked and he Said, well, I reckon we ought to kill some of them. And when we stood up, nobody shot because it was just a wall of mallard duck. Like you. You just couldn't make yourself pull the trigger. It was they rising, I mean, and then they all got up and left and we all looked at each other like Bill said, oh, we're getting soft now. Like, but the real problem was if you fire one shell into there, you just broke the law. Like, there was no way to not kill more than five. I mean, that's how many were. It was a layered wall of mallard ducks. Like you were not going to kill any I Mallard Drake. You were just, you know, so, yeah, kind of the. And then when you know it, we sat there till 2 o' clock before I think we fired our, our shotguns.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

So. But I did think that was a really cool perspective from a man who had seen that many sunrises at that point in his life. Was, man, I sure hate to waste a sunrise.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin Martin]

All right, you got. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, man. So lots of cool memories with those guys through the years, man. Lots of, you know, Phil is obviously no longer with us on this earth, but you know, with the hope that he shared, we know where he is and I'm pretty Larry his all around. Yeah. And he lent us a road print on how to get to him, you know, so like we know the road map on how to end up where he is. And, and I think, you know, as much as anybody wants to remember Phil Robertson for duck hunting, he would, that's okay with him, but he wanted to be. Remember somebody who was, who was unashamed to share Jesus. And you know, if you asked him, his legacy, that's the one that he wants people to remember, he, as much as he loved killing ducks, it didn't, it didn't come anywhere close to changing people's lives forever. So.

[Sam]

Yeah, well, he, so when we, when I was down there on that photo shoot, we had hunted the morning, went back to Phil and Ms. K's house for lunch, and Jason Ben were sitting on the couch talking yeti business and Ms. K was in the kitchen cooking or, you know, doing whatever. And, and Phil was in his real tree oversized, you know, recliner, which I actually had the same chair in my college dorm room. So I, I thought that was funny. But he sat there for 15 minutes and gave me just him and I just eyes locked, full sermon, you know, just going through. And man, just the, the way that he went about it had a major impact on Me, like, just from that 15 minutes experience. I mean, I grew up going to church and. And the whole thing, but I, you know, having him sit there and have the passion roll out was pretty special for a guy that spent his whole life, you know, kind of living that way.

[Justin Martin]

Yeah, man, he was. I didn't matter who you were. He was super intentional about. About listening to what you had to say, but also making sure that you listened to what he had to say. So there. There was nothing Phil Robertson loved more than a captive audience, and you know it. But, man, the intentionality, because the look like you're talking about, if you're not there, you won't understand this, but if you got to have that conversation, you could tell in his eyes and in his face that, A, he meant it and B, that he was talking to you. This wasn't a rehearsal. This wasn't. I'm doing this because I have to. He truly cared that everybody that he ran into had that opportunity to hear that message, so. And unlike a lot of preachers, he didn't complicate it. The one thing that made him really cool was it was the same message everywhere now. Very consistent, but truly from his heart.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah, Pretty. I mean, just pretty amazing because, you know, it's hard to be that consistent for that long.

[Justin Martin]

Absolutely. And with as many cameras and microphones as we had on us, to not screw up at some point. Right. And end up on tmz.

[Sam]

Right. Oh, man. Well, what's the best way for people to find you, you know, and everything else you guys got coming up?

[Justin Martin]

Oh, man. For me, all my socials, I tried to make them the same thing. Should be at J. Martin Duckman. So any. Anywhere. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. And then also still, I'm still very active in the official Duck Commander. So if you. If you still love Duck Commander, I'm still there. We're still. We're still going to be pumping out the content. We're still going to be, you know, this year, I think it's going to look a little different. Jace is going to. Is kind of back. Not that he ever went away, but he was doing his treasure show and super busy and just didn't really have the bandwidth between that and unashamed and everything going on with Phil and K to really pour into it, but he's committed to doing a. Yeah. A more produced style of duck and kind of like back to the. To the old where I'm still. My job for Duck Commander is going to be more of the daily. The daily grind. Vloggy type. Not a, you know, me and a cameraman kind of, you know, because if there's anything. What I love about duck hunting is not being in a duck blind. I like bushwhacking them and I like. I like going where they live and getting in and getting out. That is kind of my favorite way to hunt ducks. So the duck blind has its own benefits, but. But I like getting in their house and tricking them, and that's kind of my favorite deal. So it'll be two totally different aspects on duck hunting. Like, and to really show you, our goal is to show you we don't care how you duck hunt. Just go. Just. Just go do it again. Get from the experience what you want. And, and my experience is getting in there and having Mallard Drake splash me in some little short trees and, you know, some of them, like big, comfortable duck blinds with heaters and stuff like that. And so that's what our hope is, is to show you there's a hundred different ways to do this. None of them are right. None of them are wrong. So just go have fun and enjoy the experience.

[Sam]

Yeah, I love that. Well, thanks again for joining me on this and just, you know, being willing to tell stories and whatever. But we'll. I. I'm trying to plan a trip down to Louisiana, so if I can make it down there, we got to connect and just, you know, even. Even if it's. Grab a cup of coffee or something, but I'd rather go chase some ducks around.

[Justin Martin]

Hey, come on, man. I'm a. I'm. I'm a. I'm an open book. I'll be. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna really travel. Our first split, I'm gonna hunt here till Thanksgiving, and then I'm gonna bump up to Arkansas and then eventually up into Missouri and then come back down into Arkansas. But then come about just before Christmas, since I got the three year olds, I'm gonna get on lockdown, so. Yeah, for sure. And so I'll be here around the house, or if we run into each other on the road, man, would love to have you. And that goes for anybody listening to this, man, if you please, if you see me out on the road, stop, man, stop me. Shake my hand like, whatever, man. I want y' all to know I hear this all the time. Like, I don't want to bother you. Let me just tell you, you're not bothering me. Like, you're not. I'm super thankful for, for this path that the. The good Lord and the platform that he's given me. So, man, if shaking hands is the least we can do, I want to do that. And so, you know, please, please stop us and say hello, and, man, we're happy to. You're never a bother, so. But, yeah, come on, man. Like, come on, you know. You know the way down here. We'll still go chase them. I still got that field, so we still got that rice. All right, well, I'll be in the check. I'm actually going to check on it here in a little bit to make sure that the water's. The water's going into it pretty good. So it's more of a second split kind of a deal. Not really a first split one. So I'm not in a real big hurry to get it done, but. Yeah, we still got old parchment. That's the brim water parchment, because it's dry as parchment. Paper generally then takes. So that's why we call it that.

[Sam]

So I love it. Well, thanks again, and I'll. We'll catch up with you soon.

[Justin Martin]

All right, Sam. Be good, man.