Hank Hunt #6

0:00This episode of the Flush Podcast is brought to you by Anax Hunt, Waltons, North Dakota Tourism, All Clear Hearing Protection, Game Virtual Shooting Simulators, Lucky Duck Kennels, Black Gold Dog Food, and by Federal Ammunition. Today we're announcing Hank Hunt number six, and you are invited. Scott Franzen is here to share the details of this year's hunt and explain why this has become one of his favorite hunting traditions. Now is your time to act if you want to be a part of this hunt and to be featured on our television show, The Flush. We'll also talk

0:34about this heat wave, training your dog and yourself, an update on Millie and whatever Scott has stuck in his craw. The Flush. So fast, it hardly seems real. So vivid, the moment freezes in time before erupting in a blur of spurs and feathers. It's why we change the way upland loads are built with Prairie Storm. Exclusive flight control flex wad technology and a mix of copper plated lead and flight stopper pellets combine to create dense, deadly shot strains through any choke.

1:05Longer shots, more power, fewer missed burns. Only from Federal. Welcome to another episode of The Flush Podcast. I am your host, Travis Frank. Big Al is our producer. Scott Franzen is back in the room. Scott, what did you do to escape the heat?

1:35I went golfing. And how did you golf? Uh, okay. What'd you hit on number one? Uh, hard. Did you? You know, golfing is not escaping the heat though. No, I know. I know. And it was hot. But, but. Look at my water bottle. I will say you get, you know, we, obviously we didn't walk. So you get a little breeze going in the car. Obviously we didn't walk. I know golf is meant to be played in a golf cart. He's the boss. You think he walks on the golf cart? It was 90 degrees out in 90 humidity. Right. Um, and, uh,

2:08but it was good. You know, it was, it was, I, I think I told you this. I had like five beverages and never went to the bathroom once. I mean, it was hot. That's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Uh, big Al, you survived as well. Glad to see you back here. It is Monday, the 13th of July. We are less than 60 days away from hunting season. Everybody. It is coming fast. There's a lot to announce today. We're excited about that. Specifically the Hank hunt. And this goes quick.

2:43This always goes quick. We're not going to get into the Hank hunt details just yet because you're going to have to listen a little. We're going to, we're going to make you hang out here for just a couple of minutes and listen to what our, um, our listeners have written in to ask questions about Al. You want to grab one of them first? Should we, which one you have listener questions? Yeah. Yeah. I, I want him to be more a part of the show and it's fun to see if he can read. All right. So I've given him a couple of emails and said, you grab whatever you want here. Scott, you tell me, do you want Cody or Brandon

3:15first? Let's go alphabetically. We'll start with Brandon. All right. I almost chose Cody first when you said alphabetically. There's that great Mankato state education coming. All right. This is from Brandon. Hi, Travis. I listened to your, he should have said hi, Travis and big Al. I'm kind of hurt. Hi, Travis. I listened to your podcast every week while I travel for work. It's a great way to live vicariously through you while I wish I was a field with my dogs. I live in North Carolina and have two draw tars. Yeah. Just making sure. One is eight and a half years old and I have a seven month old

3:48pup. My seventh month month old is really going to turn into a nice dog with the right exposure. She has drive and confidence in spades. And I want to make sure I want to make a big ranging brush busting steady dog. I've gone shooting preserves for most of my older dog's life, but I'm getting into woodcock hunting. I'm thinking about a trip North or West next year to allow my older dog to experience more wild birds and hopefully really see a light turn on with my younger dog. If you could take a young dog anywhere in the U S to hunt wild birds, where would you go? And what birds would you hunt? It would be cool to hear this answer on your show. Yeah. Anyways, thanks. And I look

4:23forward to hearing your thoughts. Oh, thanks for sending in the message, Brandon. Congrats on the puppy. Scott, you go ahead and think about where you would go to train a dog. So that breed is a pointing breed and woodcock are a wonderful bird to train with. Wild birds make a dog. I mean, there's a reason people that do this for a living, uh, they load up a trailer full of dogs and they head out to the prairie in August and September and start working with dogs because you can't, there's no

4:55substitute for a wild bird. So what this listener wants is a dog that gets after it out there. Um, I think I kind of sort of just answered it by, by saying this is what a lot of the professional trainers do and have done for decades. They go, where would you go? I thought that was part of the question too. Yeah. So the prairie being Montana or North Dakota is probably, so there's two, two answers to that. Um, because he lives in, is it North Carolina, Alex? Is that right? Yeah.

5:26The chances of just being able to head to North Carolina for a couple of days are probably going to be slim during the middle of summer. Maybe if you have the chance to do it, um, you know, a late August trip, early September trip. Do you mean North Dakota? Yeah. You could go North Dakota. Um, I would say West of the Missouri river, or you could go Montana. I would say East of Fort Peck, you know, and kind of put it in that area. So Eastern Montana, Western North Dakota. The reason why it's so great out there is because the prairie is short grass. You get to see your dog

6:01with a young dog. You're working with them. You want to be able to correct, help, encourage all of this stuff is hard to do when you are in the forest. Right. And that's where the woodcock live. My second answer to this would be, uh, I'll get to that in a second would be the woodcock. Um, because they're a great bird early in the season. Sharptail grouse will let you kind of get in close as the season wears on. Hunters know that it's, it's a challenge, you know, come October,

6:32November, those birds, they group up and a lot of eyes and they're not going to hold, but people spend a lot of time working with their dogs earlier in the season with sharptail grouse. And again, it's, it's a place where you get to see your dog, right? Pheasants, a lot of times they're in thick grass this time of the year. Um, you know, we've had a decent amount of moisture here in the Midwest. So I would say that's not ideal for a young dog. Cause a lot of times you're not going to see your dog to be able to work with that dog. So that's, that's what makes the sharptail

7:05grouse an ideal bird to train with. The second part, if you want to train and hunt at the same time with a young dog, I would say the second week of October and the third week of October, you can come to Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan and work on training with your dog, I guess, while also hunting woodcock flight generally happens around that time period. And there's not a better bird to work with a young dog than a woodcock because of how tight that they will hold.

7:41Yeah. The downside to that is you're hunting. You want to be hunting at the same time. Well, that's what I heard. The question though, I heard, where can I go hunting with my old dog and young dog? Yeah. So maybe, maybe I misunderstood. This one, it says, if you could take a young dog anywhere in the U S to hunt wild birds, where would you go and what birds would you hunt? Okay. Okay. So then, yeah, I would, I would say sharptail grouse on the prairie in Western North Dakota, Eastern Montana. And then I'm also just in love with hunting grouse and the woodcock that come

8:12with it. The numbers of birds you can contact in a single hunt that time of the year is pretty high. So the North woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan are three places that I would call a destination to go hunt. Or maybe down highway too. Brandon, if I would qualify my answer, this is how much time do you have? I'm assuming you're driving up because you're bringing your dogs. So if you can plan enough time, you can hunt Northern

8:45Minnesota for grouse and woodcock at the right time, that second week of October, and then drive three or 400 miles and get into the prairies of North Dakota and potentially have three species you're chasing, pheasants, hunts, and sharptails. And then if you want to continue on, you can go to Montana, but I would, if you could hunt two or two States, then I would do Minnesota, North Dakota. And if you can only hunt one, I would choose North Dakota. And just because of the multi-species

9:18that time of year, if you're going, you know, beginning of the pheasant season, let's say the birds haven't been pressured that much. You're going to find them in the grass. You can see your dog. Um, you can, um, it's, it's really, you can then shift species based on what you're seeing. And it gives you a lot more flexibility. Yeah. I mean, especially with a young dog contacts, the more you can make, you get into some of these places where like South Dakota, for instance, obviously there's a ton of pheasants, but there's oftentimes where you're going to push a ton of

9:51pheasants and then they're all going out at once. And it's, it's chaos. It can be almost, especially for a young dog. Yeah, exactly. For a young dog, it can be a little overwhelming. You kind of lose your grip on what could potentially be a learning experience, uh, good or bad, you know? And, and that's why people ask all the time about going to South Dakota. I'm like, I find myself getting into really thick grass and cattails in South Dakota. A lot of times it's

10:22cattails. Let's be honest. That's also in play in North Dakota, but you have a lot different terrain in North Dakota and Montana. The draws are, are big, but the cattail patches within them are smaller, you know? And so you can work your dog, you can really work the birds. You can experience a lot of contacts while having a visual with your dog. And that is so valuable at a young age at certain points, they're going to get that experience, those reps. And then, yeah, then all the

10:53other places are still in play. But I, I think that's probably one of the very best places that you can go and work a young dog would be on the open prairie, short grass prairie. And I would say earlier in the season, the better, because it only gets harder as the birds wise up to all the tricks out there. And there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of public land out there. If you're public, you're probably going to be a public land hunter. And in Northern Minnesota, we have a ton of, um, both state forest and federal forest to look at. Um, the one thing, and, and I don't know,

11:29Brandon, how many dogs you have trained. Um, but I have found this useful for me when I have a pup and an experienced dog is I like hunting them together for the first walk of the morning and, you know, letting them get some of the juices out and letting that young pup experience, watch the experienced dog and, um, you know, get the, as that experienced dog is getting some context, kind of smelling and seeing that same thing. And then at some point I hunt them separately and take,

12:00I want to make sure I get that one-on-one time with my older dog. But even more important is that one-on-one time with that pup so that, and it's hard to watch two dogs. It is, especially flushing dogs. Now with pointy dogs, it's a little different. Yeah. You're talking labs. Yeah. Yeah. With, with flushing dogs and labs. And I've had it many times where, you know, my, my veteran gets birdie and starts going this way. And my young pup, it's birdie and goes the other way. And I'm like, which one do I follow? That happened with Millie? Uh, no. Cause Hank was gone when Millie started hunting. So, um, you know, and you default to the

12:33veteran dog and many times. Because of the trust. Yeah, that's right. And it could be, you know, veteran dogs putting up a hand and pups following the rooster and he gets a rooster up and you don't get a shot over it. So I, I should probably talk about this. Oh yeah. I still think so. Get that one-on-one time with both dogs, you know, but let that pup see the vet do its thing for part of your hunt each day. Yep. I'm going to add something to it as well, because you touched on bringing another dog into the equation. Now you got to know your dog. You have to understand your puppy. Is that

13:06puppy very competitive? That changes things. Yeah. Um, you know, and then if you, if in this case for Brandon, please don't run your puppy with a flushing dog on this first hunting trip. Absolutely not. If you have a veteran pointing breed dog that will stand on point, then it is a great thing to work together. Um, but the, the way that that dog is genetically wired to stop.

13:36Um, if there's a flusher in there, take it from me who had other flushers out with my pointer early in life. It set me back a full hunting season working with her to break the habit of her standing on point, watching a dog come running in literally bumped the side of her and then flush the birds off of her point. She's like, Oh, that's what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. She was almost a hybrid. Yeah. You don't want it. You don't want it. And if the dog is really competitive, then running multiple dogs out there together, just walk one direction. And then your buddy

14:08maybe goes a different direction. Your goal on this trip should be as many contacts with wild birds as possible, working with the dog to do what you want that dog to do and not rewarding bad behavior. Right. You know, if she's, he or she, I, I, did he say that if it was a male or female, but either way that, that dog, if, if it's out there running wild and flushing birds, don't shoot at them. It is a female by the way. A female. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you do not want to reward the reward is the bird, right?

14:39You don't want to reward the bird, reward the dog with a bird. If she wasn't doing what you wanted her to do. And that takes some discipline on your, uh, on your end to not pull the trigger when you're in a beautiful place and a cubby gets up or whatever it might be. So, uh, it's, it's a lot of fun. If you have the ability to head to that location, that's my recommendation. I agree.

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16:07fun for my kids. It allows them to safely build confidence, which I know translates to success in the field. Virtual training, real results. Click the show description below to learn more or visit their website at game.com to try for yourself. That's G A I M.com. Welcome to a hunter's paradise in North Dakota. Hello and d.com. Let's talk pheasant hunting. The 2026 spring pheasant crowing count survey was up 9% statewide from last year. Ample spring precip has

16:38created near ideal nesting and brood rearing habitat, setting the stage for another strong hunting season. If you're a waterfowl hunter, North Dakota's 2026 spring breeding duck survey estimated approximately 2.4 million breeding ducks, reinforcing the state's reputation as the duck factory. A premier destination for waterfowl hunting, North Dakota offers about 880,000 acres of private land open to public walk-in hunting through the plots program. For the latest information on public hunting lands and plots access, visit the North Dakota game and fish department. Start planning your fall hunt in North Dakota at lond.com. You don't know what you have until it's

17:13gone. You've probably heard that before, but I'm telling you again, because when it comes to your hearing, you really don't know what you have until you lose it. I can tell you this because I've lost quite a bit of my hearing and it affects everything I do in life. Every single shotgun blast takes its toll on your hearing and you will live with those effects for the rest of your life. But here's the thing. If you protect your hearing today, you can keep it. AllClear makes hearing protection for active hunters like us. Their in-ear monitors enhance the sounds of the wild world to help you hear every

17:44part of the hunt while also cutting out the loud blast from the shot. I wear their EXP Pros and they become a standard tool on all of my hunts, just like a good pair of boots and a shotgun. These are custom fit to your ear. They feature high definition sound shaping, wind noise rejection, and impact defense protection. Trust me when I say this is not something you want to wait on because there will be a day when it's too late to get your hearing back. Learn more at allclear.com. All right. What else we got, Al? All right. Sorry. I just got to clear my vocal cords.

18:21Hi, Travis. And I'm going to add in that pretend he said hi, Travis and Big Al again. I appreciate- What about me? Am I invisible, Al? Well, but you're not always here. You know, Travis and I- Travis only invites me some of the time. Well, you did come late and drank the rest of the coffee. I got here at five to ten. Anyways. Hi, Travis. I appreciate you taking the time to open and read this email. I wanted to reach out with some questions regarding grouse hunting in Minnesota. I enjoy traveling to chase wild birds in multiple states as my state of Pennsylvania isn't the Mecca by any means. In 26, I'll be headed to Northwest North Dakota, Eastern Montana, the UP twice, and Kansas. In 27,

18:57I'd like to switch out a week in the UP for a week in Minnesota. If you were traveling to Minnesota for a week, what general area would you focus on for a base camp? The Reamer and Grand Rapids areas seem to be very popular online, and I'm not looking for an area that is going to be extremely pressured. Would an area like Hibbing be far enough away, or would you recommend going really north like Black Duck Lake or Hoyt Lakes, or is that far north unnecessary? Would you go further? Wow. The Reamer-Grand Rapids area is very popular because, one, there's a ton of public land there.

19:34I mean, the vast majority of the land around there is public land. And then the Rough Grouse Society holds their annual national hunt there. That's usually around the second week of October, which is around the prime time. So yeah, there are quite a few people hunting in that area. There's a reason they're hunting in that area, though. There's birds. There's birds there. Yeah, it's a great area. It's very well managed. And my answer is, you're looking for big areas of ideal habitat. Now, here's the thing, though. Did he say he's

20:06going next year? Is that right? 27. Yeah. He'd like to switch out the EP for Minnesota. I mean, any information I give today is all news next week. I was going to mention that. Not to mention 2027. I know that this is in 2027, but as we're recording today, the Boundary Waters just closed because of all the fires up there. There you go. So, I mean, who knows? Case in point to what I was just saying. Any information I give today is old news next week because there are so many variables that can change where I would ultimately send somebody if I were trying to send somebody on the very best grouse and woodcock hunt in northern

20:41Minnesota. The Boundary Waters are on fire right now in northern Minnesota. Well, it's fully closed. They fully closed as we're recording this on Monday, July 15th. That's unbelievable. Right. And that is a giant. It was a one million acre. Yeah. All guests with overnight hiking, yada, yada, yada, will be denied entry into the one million acre federally protected wilderness within Minnesota Superior National Forest. Which is crazy because I literally was just in there. About a month ago, right? Yeah. Roughly. Yeah. Three weeks, a month ago, something like that. You guys were able to have fires and everything, weren't you?

21:12Well, there was a fire ban, but then they lifted it while we were in there because it rained every day, all day. Maybe you should go back up there. Which is why, yeah, I'm a cold front. Well, it's supposed to be a hundred degrees today. And even being a hundred degrees up there is really saying something. So the answer to this question really will change a lot between now and then. As a general rule, you're going to look to plan based on the habitat available. And then you might have to move a little bit once you're there.

21:44In northern Minnesota, which is where, what's this gentleman's name again? Cody. Cody, so in northern Minnesota, you're talking, I think, a couple million acres of land available. And that's from the north side to the northeast side, all the way to the northwest side. And I mean, the hibbing area that he mentioned. I wouldn't be concerned about going to a popular place like Reamer or Grand Rapids based on the amount of land that's there.

22:14When the bird numbers are up, when they're migrating through, they're migrating through. You know, so just because Scott was there hunting with Big Al for four weeks leading up to October 15th, 15th, they left on the 15th and the migration came in on the 16th and you get all the woodcock that are coming through. So therefore, other people in the area don't really have an impact on your success. Now, the rough grouse that are local birds, you're looking for the right year classes of habitat.

22:46Right. There's going to be birds in mature forests and mixed forests at all times. But big population swings typically occur on that year class of trees. Now, yeah, the further away you get from people, I find better hunting generally. But I've also had some incredible hunts in very popular places, not far from the Twin Cities. But you also don't have to, in those areas that are more popular, you don't have to go far to get away from people either. You know, there's, Grand Rapids has so, and the Reamer has so many public land accesses that, you know,

23:21you don't know how much it's been hunted and odds are it's not been hunted that much. Here's the reality, human beings, I'm going to stereotype here, but a lot of human beings are lazy. Yeah. They're going to take the easiest path. So if you're driving all the way out here from Pennsylvania, my guess is you're not going to take an easy path. My guess is you're going to bust some brush. You're going to get out there and you're going to hunt hard. If you get off a beaten path anywhere in the northern two-thirds of Minnesota in a forest, you will find birds.

23:57I feel like I've hunted northwest, southeast, all of it, and I've found birds. And the key is really just going in and doing it. You've got to go do it. Leave the trail. And how good your dog is and what time of year is the woodcock migration on and things like that. But for, and then looking, use your on X to look at the cuts. That's what we did. And it's unbelievable. And you've done it. You've explained it on the show. It's unbelievable. And you see the forest management, how if you target certain year class of cuts, how you will find some birds.

24:30You know, you may not be a thousand, but you're going to find birds. I will say this too, Cody. You want to check some things out? I hate to say it again, but Highway 2 goes all the way to the northeast part of the state. So you could start north of the Duluth area and then make your way west through the great, great grouse habitat and woodcock habitat. So the state of Minnesota puts a drumming count out every year. So this will be for his plans going into next year. Right around this time of the year, they announced the drumming counts.

25:02They haven't done it yet. Yeah, they did last week. Well, they did. Yep. Yep. They haven't, a lot of the media outlets haven't pushed it out yet, but the counts are on the decline in the northeast part of the state. Seven days ago. Yeah. And on the northwest part of the state, they're up slightly. Okay. But the caveat there is they haven't had any biologists available to do the full swing. So they put an asterisk saying, this is a very small count, only five, only five stops.

25:33And the number was up like one drummer, but hey, we'll take a positive up. And it's down basically, but do you want to read Al? The average number of sharptail grouse per lek in the northwest was 12.4 this year compared to 12 last year. The average number of sharptail grouse per lek in the east central region. I was hoping you'd be talking about the rough grouse. Oh, sorry. This is just sharptail. Okay. There's another one out there for the rough grouse. Well, this is supposed to be both. It's the news release that rough grouse is declining phase of population cycle.

26:03Okay. Get us to the rough grouse part. And there's your bonus too. If you go far enough west in the northwest part of the state, there are sharptail grouse up there as well. While Al searches for that, I'm just going to reiterate the things that will dictate the bird numbers beyond the habitat that we already mentioned. Severe winters in Minnesota, spring rains, and then hail, you know, like, summertime, you know, catastrophes. Last year in Bemidji, the 120 mile an hour winds that knocked millions of trees over.

26:36You would think this was the worst experience of your life if you drove from Pennsylvania and you couldn't walk. Yeah. You could not walk. And the year before that, there were parts of the state that had ice, late season ice. And what that did was it took all of these younger trees and they basically, the weight of it just bowed everything down. So everything was, was like laying down. The dog is on point. You can't get there. You cannot get it. Some of my favorite cuts.

27:07It's like, it's unhuntable, you know? And so then you just say, all right, I'm going to get in the vehicle and I'm going to drive. And sometimes it's drive an hour. Sometimes it's drive 10 minutes and you get out of that. So as a traveling bird hunter, we'd say that every week on this show, make a plan, but be flexible if you can. Yep. Are you ready? Yeah. It doesn't get, the only article I could find that gave me the rough gross run right now doesn't give me last year's number, but it gives me this year. Statewide, the drums per stop are 1.7, which is down slightly from last year.

27:38But, uh, Northeastern Minnesota is averaging 1.9 drums per stop, which is slightly under the two most recent statewide peaks of 2.1 drums per stop. Still pretty good. Northwestern Minnesota had, uh, 2.4 drums per stop. Here's the deal though. And that's for the five stops? Yeah. Here's the deal on the drumming counts though. Last year, the drumming counts were high and there was optimism, but everyone that knew what was happening up there, they just did the, here's a timeout.

28:08You know, because all that's telling you is how many adult birds made it out of winter. Yeah. I mean, you never know where to go. What matters a lot right now is what happens to the broods. How many chicks are going to survive to make it to hunting season? And last year, the drumming counts were high, but the broods didn't make it to hunting season. They all got washed out. Not all, but there was a big, uh, loss of recruitment last year because we had heavy, heavy, heavy rains.

28:39And that was a big deal. And fire, so we could have the fires podcast. Yeah, we, we did that too, but it was the rains that really killed everything early in the season. And cold rains during the peak of the hatch just did a lot of the chicks. And so the hunting was okay because there was such a good carryover from the year before. Well, now if the drumming counts are down, we have less drummers. Yeah. But what happens if each one of them are successful? Now you have a big, big number of birds on the ground.

29:10Most people were harvesting adult birds last year. Let's hope you want to have like a 70% yearling, uh, success when you're hunting that, that means you have good. Is that, is that average? What's average, you know, for, um, well, I mean, that's, that's high. It seems like that's going to, yeah. But yeah, I mean, think about it. Most of these birds aren't going to survive for one year, right? Six, six months is the average lifespan. Some birds that might make it to two or three years old, very rarely. Some might make it two or three days and then somehow in the middle, they all kind of come

29:43into, this is the lifespan of an upland bird. What's the average clutch size of a rough grouse? Al, look it up. All right. I'm just going to guess. I'm guessing three. Sorry. I was reading. I would say it's about for a rough grouse. I'm going to guess three to five. Nah, it's higher than that. I, you know, it's one of those things where there's such a cool bird and we always want to learn more. People study all kinds of, uh, I mean, there's studies on rough grouse. This, this is the AI overview. The average clutch size of a rough grouse is about 11 to 12 eggs. Well, what's, I wonder how many survive.

30:15Rough grouse society. Oh, just went away. A clutch usually, a clutch usually contains eight to 14 buff colored eggs when complete. You ever seen those little guys when they come out? They're just so tiny. Well, I told you when I was in Montana, I was seeing, um, litters on, or not litters, clutches, clutches on the side of the road, but there's only two or three. So that's why I was wondering, you know, if they had, let's say she hatched eight to nine, it's six already die. Well, that's just it. Yeah, exactly. That's the reality of what these birds face.

30:47Very few are going to see opening day. A female rough grouse lays about nine to 14 eggs per clutch. However, natural predators, harsh weather, yada, yada means only four to five chicks typically survive to fall. Okay. So then what I was seeing was probably average. Well, and based on the time between now and hunting season, let's hope that there were some hiding in the weeds that didn't come out because only two or three left right now. It doesn't bode too well. You, you were in Montana recently. What did you see as far as the drive from Minnesota to Montana? You drove through prime bird hunting country.

31:19Yeah, it was green. North Dakota was green. They have plenty of water, at least the areas I went through. So Eastern Montana in May was browner than it normally is that time of year. And they have gotten more rain. So it's greened up quite a bit. And then where I was kind of South Central was very green. I do think they've had decent moisture throughout the state, even in the northern part of the state, they had a really dry winter.

31:50Um, and some, some places had, shouldn't say that like where I am by the kind of the red lodge area, we'd get snow and then it'd melt, snow melt, snow melt. And so the, the drainages are having less moisture come through them, but they had rain and snow moisture. So the ground had pretty good moisture on it. Um, and so I, I would, I'm optimistic that, you know, and now it's drying out a little bit. I didn't see a ton of grasshoppers, but I saw a ton of bugs.

32:20On a, I mean, my car was caked with bugs. Yeah. Um, and I think the grasshoppers are going to start coming out now. So it looked pretty good. Uh, how was your fly fishing game? I did not fish this trip. No, no, it was, this was a more family time. Okay. Yeah. So coming up in August, I'll be fishing. Gotcha. Well, we appreciate the listeners that sent in the questions. Please keep them coming. It's, it's actually really fun to know what people are thinking and, and wondering. It helps us to provide the content. If you are thinking this, there's a good chance somebody else is probably thinking this.

32:54That's listening too. So hopefully this is valuable information out there. We get stuck in our own box here that outputs us in sometimes. Well, it's like a half box. You got a TV in front of you. It's not a box. That's true. But then we got to look at ourselves and nobody wants to see. I like looking at myself. You just got to look at yourself. There you go. There you go. Put a big screen right there. There you go. Bigger. Cause I want a mirror like a, like at home. I want the full size. We should put a mirror. I feel like you should have, uh, you know, like George Costanza. Doesn't he have his own painting of himself? Yeah. Yeah.

33:25You need your own. I have that over my bed. No, you do not. Your own painting of yourself? No, George Costanza. Where he's, he's, he's on this couch and nothing but his boxers and black socks. And it says the artful, the artful something of seduction. It's hilarious. There you go, Scott. Nice and big. There it is. Full screen, Scott friends. And there you go. All right. Now the big kahuna. Let's get to it. You're going to be hosting Hank Hunt.

33:56Number six. Number six. Can you believe it? Lucky number six. Yeah. That's crazy. Daisy's six. Millie's five. It, it doesn't seem like it goes this quick, but then all of a sudden you're sitting here talking about it and you're like, wow, look how quick it's gone. How old was Millie when Hank died? She was three months old. Okay. Yeah. Three and a half. So she's, this is her sixth hunting season, but she's five years old. She was seven months when she started hunting. And you've told the story quite a few times, so we don't really need to get too far into it,

34:29but we do have new listeners right now. And six years ago, your, your dog Hank passed away and you had a run of bad luck. You had a run of dogs. You had, uh, that sadly, uh, hunted for their last time. Um, and you were tired of burying a dog on TV or saying goodbye. Maybe that's a better word. Say goodbye. Yeah. And so you said, I want to celebrate dogs. I don't, I'm, I'm tired of crying. Yeah. I want to celebrate dogs and I want to do it with people that feel the same way that I

35:03do. And the Hank hunt was born and kind of on this podcast, really. I think we were talking about it and you said, I've got this idea. What do you think? And our amazing listeners called and it sold out in an hour. Yeah. Maybe an hour. Yeah. It's unbelievable. And the real deal here is that there's only so many, it's an intimate event. It really is. There's, we can't open it up to a hundred people because you're going hunting with these people and there's only so much room.

35:36Uh, I'll let you take it from there. What is Hank hunt number six look like and who's invited? Well, you, Hank hunt number six, there's going to be some similarities and some nuances to this year's hunt. Um, it is again at Brown's Lodge and hunting ranch in South Dakota. We have found that just their accommodations, the wild birds, Gettysburg, South Dakota, Gettysburg, South Dakota. Um, you know, just in pure amount of things you're going to see because it's not just

36:08pheasants. You'll see sharptails. We shot a sharptail last year. We saw huns. We got a hun last year. And, but the numbers of pheasants are unbelievable. This is what you think of when you think about the dream pheasant hunt in South Dakota. And they're wild birds. And that, that was important to us when we decided we wanted to do this. So it's in December, the dates, if you're, if you're listening and you probably are because you, you, you've made it this far, um, we arrive on December 13th, which is a Sunday.

36:38We hunt Monday, Tuesday, depart after breakfast on the 16th. Now, if you want to depart earlier in that, you can, but that's kind of the trip length. Um, all the meals are part of this. Um, some tchotchkes that we bring along. Um, yeah. Tchotchkes. He always calls them tchotchkes. No prizes. What is a tchotchke to somebody who doesn't know what a tchotchke is? Um, swag. There you go. I've never heard that word before. Tchotchkes. Swag? No, I've heard swag. Okay. Everyone's heard swag.

37:09That's how I am. I'm 24. You think I haven't heard of that? Tchotchkes. And it's, I think the, wait for what else, wait for the next thing he's going to do that you're going to be like, what? What? Woo. Um, the, the thing that has probably made me the proudest of this. And, um, that why I want to keep this going is, well, A, we've added the fundraising piece for Pheasants Forever, which is great. Um, but the lifelong friendships that have come from this hunt, um, for us.

37:41Yep. And then for the hunters that have been on the hunt, we have so many people that have text strings, um, with all the people that have been on the hunt. How many text strings are you and I on with some of these people? My phone, like Saturday morning, I wake up and I'm like, yeah. I see Steve Hall and Adam Ryle are friends and they've bought puppies from Steve and his daughters bought a puppy from Steve. Yeah. And then, and then they're hunting together away from this. And that is what, um, you know, I think is so cool and the by-product and extension of

38:15this hunt and what it's done. And we're all fairly similar in terms of bird hunters. Now there's, there's loners out there and I, you know, there's a lot of times I like to hunt alone too, but we love our dogs. We love being in wild places. We love the things that come with being in wild places, the sunrises, the sunsets, migrations, the changing of the seasons and, um, camaraderie and being able to kind of tell and share that story with other people.

38:46And that's what the Hank hunts kind of become, which is pretty neat. Celebration of dogs. And people. And people. Yeah. But dogs primarily, and then people. So this, the nuance for this year's hunt is. Yeah. You've been, you've been tweaking it every year. Everyone would kind of, kind of make it a little bit different every year. Somebody listening might be mad at you in a minute. Well, it could be. And then maybe next year it'll be different. So you, so, so you only be mad for 12 months. Yeah. Um, last year we did a parent child Hank hunt and that was so great.

39:16You and Hannah hosted. Hannah and I hosted. They get to watch that coming up in a couple of weeks. Yeah. That's right. It's coming up. I think it goes to edit next week. Um, and we had three, like two sons, two daughters. I'm not missing. I feel like I'm missing someone. Was there eight of us? Yeah. And, um, and then we, and then the, the, the, this happened to be all dads on the hunt. And we had one young hunter get her first wild pheasant. We had a sharptail taken. We had, um, two different parent child doubles on camera, which is pretty cool.

39:53And, um, I, I watched, uh, very interested in the interactions of people when they do this and to have, um, a parent child double in that pure kind of emotion of hugging. And this, this is so cool. This is a memory we're going to share now for years to come. And then hunters that hadn't done a lot. And you, you know, you ask them, what'd you think? I want to come back next year. This was way better than I thought it would be.

40:24You know, just that the whole experience, not just the hunting, the whole experience. So this year's hunt is going to be a husband and wife or wife, husband, Gene. Got to be married or would it just couples? Ah, they can be couples. Can my girlfriend and I come? No, that's a hard no, Al. But you got, you know, you, we want you, the spouse doesn't necessarily have to hunt if they don't want to. Gene is not going to carry a gun. Your wife?

40:54Yeah. She doesn't hunt. She loves going on the hunt. Everything, the walking, the dogs, the whole thing. So, um, Gene and my wife and I are going to host this and there are room for, five other couples. Yes. Five couples. We donated one hunt to PF. That's already been, uh, to an auction. They've already sold out. So five plus that. Yeah. So there would be. Six couples? Six couples total plus Gene and I.

41:25Couples Retreat. Maybe Travis and Sarah. You ever seen the movie Couples Retreat? I have seen that. I just saw that. This is a version of Couples Retreat. Here we go. Um. God, I can't imagine that.

41:36Which character would you be in Couples Retreat? Oh, who is the coolest one? Oh, for sure. Jason Bateman, maybe? Wasn't he in that? I can't wait to hear that podcast. There's going to be some irritated wives and some happy husbands. Well, how do you know it's not going to be the other way around, Al? Oh, come on, Scott. Huh? Oh. You're saying you're not going to be Vince Vaughn? I could have been Vince Vaughn, too. Yeah. Sure. Anyways, back to the hangout. So, we're selling five hunts. Here's the specifics. It's $2,850 per person.

42:08That includes your hunt, your meals, your dog life membership. Lodging. Lodging. Lodging. Swag. Swag. Tchotchkes. Tchotchkes. How do you spell that? So, per person, not per couple. Per person. Okay. Yeah. And all of the proceeds go to Pheasants Forever and Quilt. Pheasants Forever. That is correct. Yep. This, obviously, we will film this, as we always do. This will be filmed this fall to air in the 2027 season of The Flush.

42:39Now, here's the important part. And you always laugh at this. This is why I told you to get ready, Al. Yeah. All right. You're so old school. Well, because... Get your pen and paper. Pull over if you're driving. Let me make sure Scott's on the big screen for this. You're going to have to call Browns Lodge and Hunting Ranch to try and reserve your spot if you want to go. That number. Get your pencil ready. Good thing Scott was in radio. I know. 605-765-9150. One more time. 605-765-9150.

43:10And the way, the reason we do a phone call is so we can take, not we, the lodge can take people as they call and just, and get them an order. And if you're not, and you can also go on a waiting list and they'll talk to you all about that. And I want to remind people, this is not, we are hosting and filming the hunt, but everything else is the lodge is doing. We have nothing to do with, you know, the money and all of that stuff. That just is the lodge. Yeah. You're paying for the lodging and the meals.

43:40Yeah. And then the extra goes... To Pia. To Pia. So if something happens, please do not angrily call Scott Franson. Well, here's what's funny though. So this phone number, somebody's driving and they're like, I can't remember that right now. Browns Lodge and Hunting Ranch. Correct. Oh my God. Browns Lodge and Hunting Ranch. That same phone number will be on their website. Yep. Correct. Correct. And that rolls right over to Louis Valencia. And we'll probably put it in the description. Yeah. And Louis is taking the calls as they come in. Yep. Yep. So one more time. What's that number?

44:11Can we turn that into a jingle, please? The number?

44:15605-765-9150. How's that out? 605-765-9150.

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45:34So go to luckyduck.com today and see the full line of kennels and accessories. Keep your dog safe from the unpredictable with the Lucky Duck, because loyalty goes both ways. Here's a scouting tip that might just help you find a few more wild birds. First, grab your phone and then open up the OnX Hunt app. In the bottom right corner, click on the 2D button and then select 3D. Then place two fingers on the screen of your phone and slide them up together at the same time. After that, zoom into a property that you've hunted before, or one that you've never been to,

46:05and take a look at the terrain in 3D. I bet you'll see a few nooks and crannies that will hold birds out of the elements. I bet you'll see the land in a dimension that you never thought possible. These are the details that matter when you're putting miles on the truck and on your boots during a hunt. OnX Hunt is the ultimate tool for us bird hunters. It shows our position on planet Earth, land boundaries, land topography, burns, forests that have been logged, weather, and a whole bunch of other features that will make you a better hunter. If you've never tried the OnX Hunt app, then you can download a free 7-day trial to help you understand

46:40why hunters like myself simply can't hunt without it. Know where you stand with OnX Hunt.

46:49A little off tune, out of tune. And swag. Tchotchkes are small, inexpensive, and ornamental trinkets, knickknacks, and souvenirs. But it never says clothing. It says freebie items handed out at conventions, branded pens, stress balls, or key change. Well, it's free stuff. Yeah. Anyways. The big deal is the experience that you already mentioned. And it's something that has sold out each time you've done this fairly quickly. Yes. So pull over if you want to call now because it could go in an hour.

47:26It could go in a day. We don't know. You know, the first time you did it, it was just open to whoever had a dog that they wanted to celebrate and thought this could be a fun deal. And it was right away. Now you've sort of, you know, if somebody listening doesn't have a significant other, then maybe next year it'll work out. Yeah. I think we'll go back to single hunters next year. It's just, we're trying to, you know, switch it up just a little bit from both who gets

47:56to experience and then also from a television standpoint. There's, you know, there's different stories with the parent child and just as there will be with husband and wife or wife and husband or couples, whatever it is. And on that, you and I have both been pretty open to sharing our family experiences. You've taken your daughters, you've taken your wife. And that's an experience taking your daughters. No, and it really is. And I've taken my kids and my wife, my mom, you know, I mean, I have taken my family out as well. And I will tell you that has an impact on people watching.

48:30Young girls sitting down to watch with their dad who loves to hunt, seeing other girls out there in the field, wives that have come up to me at Pheasant Fest or in random places in a store and been like, Hey, I watched the episode of you and your wife hunting and it changed our marriage because I went hunting with my husband. He brought me, he saw it, he wanted to do it. And now I love hunting just as much as he does. I spend the falls and the winters with him when before I didn't because he was leaving.

49:00This is amazing. Thank you. So if you're driving right now and you're thinking, well, I don't know that my wife would want to do this. Maybe just consider the fact that her being a part of it could have an impact on somebody else watching. Right. We never know who's watching our shows or listening to our podcasts and what information might affect them that we deliver and what message or what just happens because other people are out there. So, you know.

49:31Well, and I'd add to that if you're a, whether you're a husband, wife or in store, sort of a couple and you love hunting, what's the reason you love hunting mostly because of your dog. So if you're living with somebody else, wouldn't it, wouldn't you want them to actually see what your dog is bred to do? And let's face it. Most of our dogs are inside. They're not in kennels outside and things like that. Most of them are part of our family and part of our household. And that's, that's why I got my kid. Not the only reason, but one of the reasons I wanted my girls and I wanted my wife is to

50:03see these pets that they doted on at the house, you know, light it up in the field and go, oh my God. It does. Yeah. It's amazing. I mean, it's why we are so passionate about addicted maybe is the right word for it, but it's just amazing. So sharing that together, it's like the best date you could ever, I mean, come on, best date getaway and it's before Christmas and you're going to go into the holidays with stories to tell and you're going to have this television show to watch forever and ever and ever.

50:34Amen. And we, you know, knock on wood, we have had good weather in December out there. It could be horrible, but we're still going to have fun. And you know, don't, I don't, you know, it. Well, the best memories come when everybody has to endure the same thing. Hardships. Yeah. You remember that. Yep. So even a blizzard might be the most memorable hunt of your life. And maybe, maybe you're a couple that hasn't started a family, but you're thinking about in the future, this would be a great show to show your kids one day. Hey, look, mom and I, or dad and I, the show will last forever.

51:06Or, or watch Travis's family and then my family and my family be the reason you don't want to have kids. That is not true at all. Travis's family be like, oh, you want them like that. And then like the Franzen family's like, oh my Lord. When they set off the, when they honk the horn. Honk the horn. I love that so much. Your pure pissed off-edness coming out. I was like, what are you doing? Just the way that the camera was rolling and caught you. Just shake your head in anger. What did you do? That's a great memory to look back at when you watch the show.

51:38Oh, I love it so much. She does not want me to put that in the show. Like that's going in. I think it's really cool that you decided on husband and wife. I mean, we talked about this and you know, you and I. I wish you were coming. Well, maybe you and Sarah would be a guest. Maybe I'll sign up. Yes. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. You can't have that time off though.

51:56Yeah. Technically it's Scott's episode. So you're not working either. Yeah. He tried to get me to go and do this one. I was like, this is yours. Hey, what do you think about you and your wife going on a beautiful getaway in December to Gettysburg, South Dakota? Panic and watch the kids. Well, I actually also have plans for the same time period. So. Okay. I don't think, although I might actually be driving through. So. Oh. You could stop by and make an appearance. You could have a dinner with us and go for a little while. Yeah. Totally. So just remember, included in that price could be a celebrity appearance from Travis

52:29Frank. From Travis Frank. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to have to pay the talent fee for that one, Scott. Yeah. Okay. So go to Brown's Lodge and Hunting Ranch. If you didn't remember the phone numbers, we'll also list it here. In the description. Do this now. If you want to go, that's my only recommendation. And we'll have a great time. Yeah. You're going to have a great time. I mean, honestly, there's no, there's no doubt about that. And it'll probably fill up quick. Cause would you say five spots left? Five couples. Five couples. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So 10 people, five couples.

53:01And just so somebody's like, Oh, I don't want to go with 12 people in a March. Is it? You guys split up. We split up. It's not, it's not an army. No. It's just a line of husband and wives walking through. Yelling at each other. Oh, like at the boat launch. Yeah. You know, the ramp rage television show I wanted to produce at a lawyer. I would love that. We got said, the lawyer said no, because that's defamation of character. Remember you looked into it. Right. I did. I pitched the story at our story meeting for Minnesota Bound.

53:33I just wanted to set a cameraman up on a boat launch on Lake Minnetonka on the hottest July day in the summer. When everybody's pissed off. Just roll. You would have unbelievable footage. And it would fill up. The 4th of July, you might have unbelievable footage from the boat ramp in general. The madness that comes from that marriages endure at the boat launch is real. It is unbelievable. Going back to the hunt to just so people understand what late season North Dakota hunting is like. South Dakota. Or South Dakota.

54:03Yeah. That too. Well, maybe North Dakota. We, um, traditionally are hunting in and around cattail sloughs and you're going to be, none of them are killers, but in oftentimes you might have, uh, two separate groups and two different sloughs. And there's some grasses depending on how much snow and cover around them. But when there's snow, they're in the sloughs. You're going to go over the birds. Yeah. And, um, and then we sometimes we'll have, uh, blockers and that sort of thing, but you will, if you've never hunted in South Dakota and you haven't seen hundreds of birds, you

54:38will see hundreds of birds. Yeah. I was going to ask, what is a big flush look like out there over the last couple of trips you've taken? I mean, are you seeing a hundred bird flushes? Yes. Yeah. And, and, and, and, you know, not at your feet. No, they're getting up way in front of you and you are waiting for the two or three that hold near you, or you're pushing them towards the blockers. And oftentimes he slews like the biggest one. I'm thinking it's a half mile long. So you don't even see the blockers. Sometimes you might hear shooting and you'll hope you got one. And then you get close and then it, uh, you get to see the whole thing.

55:11And I just like watching the people that haven't seen this and just their faces as they go, Oh my God, look at that. And they're pointing. They're not even hunting anymore. They're just pointing, you know, and it's unbelievable. People usually do that when I'm walking by, I'm on the street. They do. Yeah. I think, you know, look at the noodle arms. I think, you know, thinking back to quail hunting in Kansas on my last hunt last year, just Daisy locked up and I walked in and it was a, a two Covey rise off of the same point.

55:44I didn't even shoulder my gun. I stepped into it and about 12 went this way. I took another two or three steps and another 10 or 12 went again. And I just remember laughing like that is, Oh, you step into that power. And I was totally okay. I didn't even shoulder the gun. And I don't even care because just being in that is so cool. And I think that's what you'll leave from South Dakota. You typically have people from all over the country. Rarely do we get somebody from the same state.

56:16It seems like every once in a while we have, but yeah, not much. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, thanks for doing this again this year. Thank you. Again, now is the time to sign up if you want to do so. Get on the list. If they're full, just in case the opportunity comes where somebody has something come up and they back out, then you would be next in line. Next in line. Correct.