Episode 4: Trust and teamwork drive these adult onset hunters during duck season

Hunting buddies Matt Carey and Hayden Martin didn’t grow up in hunting families — but they’ve spent the past few years living for duck season as adult onset hunters.

Matt and Hayden bring creativity and problem-solving to their hunts. Matt’s not just a hunter but a photographer who shoots birds — and his hunting adventures — with a camera. Hayden’s a disabled outdoorsman with a birdy hunting dog he’s trained to be a duck-retrieving machine. The pair work together to get out in the field, document their hunts and soak in the natural world together from the duck blind.

In this episode of The Slayer Hunting Podcast, Matt and Hayden share what drew them to duck hunting, how they overcome the challenges of adaptive hunting together in the field, and how they’re working to bring other new adult hunters into the sport. 

Follow Matt Carey on Instagram: @of_the_field
Follow Hayden Martin on Instagram: @haydenpmartin
To learn more about hunting with FSHD muscular dystrophy, visit Hayden’s website.

Pick up more hunting tips for new waterfowlers on Slayer Calls:

- Duck hunting on public land: 5 tips for success
- When you’re waterfowl hunting on public land, don’t be *that* guy
- How to choose a duck call
- How to clean and maintain your duck call
- How to avoid duck hunting mistakes (and what to do instead)

Learn more about adaptive hunting:

- Adaptive Hunting Database, NRA
- Down to Westlake, Hayden’s website
- “Think you have hunting fortitude? Wait ‘til you meet Hayden,” Slayer Calls

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What’s your top advice for adult onset hunters who are new to the sport? Leave a comment or drop a line to podcast@SlayerDuckCalls.com to tell us all about it. 

Thanks for listening! We’d love to have you back, so subscribe to The Slayer Hunting Podcast to make sure you don’t miss an episode. Listen to The Slayer Hunting Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to feed your obsession between episodes.

#Hunting #HuntingLife #NewHunters #FirstTimeHunter #AdultHunter #AdaptiveHunting #DisabledHunters #MuscularDystrophy #FSHDMuscularDystrophy #DuckHunting #Waterfowl #Conservation #DuckCalls #CustomDuckCalls #Podcast #SlayTheDay #SlayEm #HuntingPodcast

Transcript

Bill Ayer:

Hey all welcome to the Slayer podcast. I'm your host Bill Ayer, owner of Slayer Duck Calls, a company founded on family, heritage, unrivaled, quality craftsmanship, and an uncontrollable obsession for hunting. Let's get to it.

Bill Ayer:

How's it going, Hayden? How's it going, Matt? Welcome to the Slayer podcast.

Matt Carey:

How's it going?

Bill Ayer:

Going great.

Hayden Martin:

Going pretty good over here. How're you?

Bill Ayer:

Doing awesome. I'm even doing better. Our duck hunting season starts on the ninth, so hopefully I can get out this week and do a little scouting. We hunt public land over here for the most part. So a lot of our time is spent scouting trying to find the birds.

Matt Carey:

I'm jealous of that. We got to wait a few more months.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah, we have a long season here. They'll go to the 9th until I want to say the 28th, 26th or 28th of January, so...

Matt Carey:

Oh wow. Yeah, that is really long. Wow.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah, we have a lot of local birds that hang out around here. And then about middle November, we get to Northern birds that come down and I'm pretty fired up. I'm going to North Dakota this year for about 10 days. I'm leaving probably on the 18th and will be there until about the 28th.

Hayden Martin:

Heck yeah, that sounds like that's going to be good.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. So why don't we do some introductions? We got Matt Carey and Hayden Martin on the phone. So Hayden, you want to introduce yourself who you are and...

Hayden Martin:

Yeah, my name is Hayden Martin. I'm a disabled outdoorsman. I have been hunting with my buddy Matt Carey for the past several years. And over the time we've just been trying to find new accommodations and new ways to get me out into the field and just to enjoy life together and have fun out in the blind, out with our dogs and just taking this hunting journey one step at a time.

Bill Ayer:

That's awesome. How about you, Matt?

Matt Carey:

I'm from Georgia originally, but I live in Nashville, Tennessee. I didn't grow up hunting, started getting into that and was able to go on my first duck hunt down in Arkansas, which was just spoiling. So I got into doing that and I've been doing it probably for about five years or so now. And just absolutely love it. Changed my life. I got into doing that and do other types of hunting now. And then along the way, picked up a camera and have been just kind of trying to capture these things that I never knew that I was missing and bring people into it and inspire other people to try something that I didn't realize I was missing in my life. I started doing the photo thing mainly because I wanted to keep hunting. And keep shooting things that I couldn't shoot when the season was over. So that's kind of how it started for me, but I absolutely love it.

Bill Ayer:

Oh, so you're in Tennessee. Hayden, where are you located?

Hayden Martin:

I'm in middle Georgia right now, but I travel up to Tennessee and Missouri during hunting season.

Bill Ayer:

Got it. Okay. Is that where you guys typically hunt, Tennessee and Missouri?

Hayden Martin:

Yeah.

Bill Ayer:

Okay, cool. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the things that attracted us, a couple things that we're very passionate about is preserving the sport of hunting and also conserving our wetlands for our wildlife. And so we try to give back so we can try to preserve or conserve the wildlife habitat but we also want to preserve the sport of hunting and I think getting all walks of life involved in it so they get their friends, family, kids involved in it is super important. We do some work around Idaho here with Wounded Warriors and things of that nature to try to get them doing something that they're excited about. And the fact Hayden that you're disabled and you're getting out there and doing it I think is encouragement that anybody can get out there and try to give this a sport a chance and see if they like it or not. So, yeah, Matt, you said it kind of changed your life. Explain that a little bit more?

Matt Carey:

Yeah. I mean, so I grew up doing skateboarding and playing guitar and doing music stuff. And I've been working in music for the last 10 years or so. That was my focus, and I've always had probably 20 different hobbies. But when I found this, when I found hunting and specifically duck hunting it's a different kind of fun to me. When I found that it just really kind of consumed all of the other hobbies and kind of pushed them out of the way. And it was like, man, if I'm going to focus on anything with my free time this is what I want to do with it. Even if I can only do it a couple months out of the year.

Bill Ayer:

Got it. Cool. And then Hayden, how about you? How'd you get into it? What drives you to get out there in cold mornings and look for ducks?

Hayden Martin:

I got into duck hunting through my buddy, Ben, who's currently in Missouri. My service dog passed away back in 2015. And before that I had gone out Missouri with him to pick up his hunting dog. And through that time spent in Missouri, I was able to just see the dogs that were out there and the way they just worked and the way they were driven to just retrieve the marks and that were pointed out to them. And that was just something that blew my mind. And from there, I was able to get another one of the dogs from the next litter. I was able to get one. And then I just started training from there, with my buddy Ben. Then Matt started doing hunting about a year or two after me. And then he invited me up to Tennessee and we've just been hunting ever since.

Bill Ayer:

Got it. That's cool. Yeah. I think the dog is, for me, probably one of the bigger parts of duck hunting. I don't even have to shoot. If I could just go and work my dog and watch all that go down. It's a satisfying day for me. So that's awesome. Do you do any hunt tests or anything like that or just mainly hunt your dog?

Hayden Martin:

I haven't done any hunt tests. I've had a couple people that wanted me to hunt test my dog, but I didn't really feel the need to, I was just like, I'm happy with where she's at and I just want to run her and have a blast.

Bill Ayer:

Got it. Cool. Well, good. So yeah, tell me a little bit more about being in your situation and going out hunting. What are some of the challenges that you have when you get out there. What message are you trying to give to those who, who might have some challenges physically or mentally - what message are you trying to get out there for the folks? Cause, from the sounds of things, it's not easy to get out to the duck line and hold a gun and shoot it and do all that. So...

Hayden Martin:

Absolutely. Pretty much one of the bigger challenges we mentioned is just getting out to the duck blind, but I have mobility problems due to my FSHD muscular dystrophy, if there's uneven ground, I might be slipping a lot. And you in the dark, that's not a good thing to be dealing with. So one of the ways that Matt and I figured out initially was to hop in a kayak and we load me down with the rest of the gear and Matt pulls me out to where we're going to be hunting. And then we get set up and situated from there. And even then though, sometimes the terrain is not stable. It's not steady.

Hayden Martin:

And so just having another person there to help me out, help me get situated. That's kind of a must right now because if I were to slip and fall, I'm kind of S-O-L until someone comes and gets me. That's one of the big things with hunting is just having someone you can trust and rely on that knows you and knows your situation. And if you're going to go out and hunt and have fun, make sure to surround yourself with the people that you trust and are able to help you out.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. I could imagine that'd be a huge thing. And, it probably, I'm just guessing, cause I don't know what it's like to be in your situation, but you probably really have to be comfortable with that person and trust them. Like if it was just anybody, you might not feel comfortable asking for help or looking for a shoulder to lean on, probably have to have a pretty good relationship with that person to feel comfortable to do those things. Or am I wrong? You just, if somebody's willing to help, you're good to go.

Hayden Martin:

I mean, if someone is willing to help, I'm all for it. But even then though, it's just like, how do I know that this person can help me out if I'm hunting with them for the first time? And that is something that Matt and I have built up over about the past seven, eight years that we've known each other. We went to school together in Tennessee. And that's how we started our friendship and the brotherhood that we have today. And now we're able to hunt together. We're talking, we're talking how we're training our dogs together. We're talking the different guns that we're looking at. I mean he and I, we can talk hunting 24/7, 365. Sometimes we have to limit our phone calls because there have been times we've been talking to each other at home and then we look at the time we're like, have we really been talking for two hours?

Bill Ayer:

Yeah.

Matt Carey:

Yeah.

Bill Ayer:

Had a conversation with an elk hunter earlier this morning and it was supposed to be a 30 minute phone call. And it turned out to be about two hours and 15 minutes. And we wanted to talk about something very specific and about an hour and 45 minutes to get to that topic because we were talking about our elk hunts the last two weeks or whatever. So I know how that goes.

Matt Carey:

Yeah.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah, so when’s the last time you guys have been out? You guys had an early teal season, didn't you?

Matt Carey:

Yeah. Hayden actually came up here to visit with me. He stayed for - how long were you there? Like four days Hayden, is that right?

Hayden Martin:

Four or five days?

Matt Carey:

Yeah. So he came up for like four or five days. We have an early goose season, like a resident goose season and then dove are also open at the same time. And it just kind of didn't work out the best to have him come up during the September season. Because our buddy that has a boat wasn't going to be there at all for most of it. So that kind of makes it a little challenging to get to some of these spots. But we went and did one day at goose hunting and did not, we saw a lot of geese, but they didn't get anywhere close to where we were. And the early season, local geese, they just do what they want to do. There's no calling them to do anything otherwise. But then we went out, I think that first afternoon and we're like, oh, let's go shoot some doves. And the first spot wasn't going to work. So then we went to a second spot, which was kind of like a gas and it was actually pretty successful.

Bill Ayer:

Oh, that's good.

Hayden Martin:

Oh yeah. That was a fun night. Kind of got in a little trouble too, but it was fun.

Matt Carey:

When you say a little bit of trouble, You mean.

Hayden Martin:

We got home a little later than we were supposed to. It was fun.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. That happens when you're hunting.

Matt Carey:

Yeah, well we were trying to pack up and then all the sudden and everything starts flying, you know? And you can't walk away when they're just flying right over your head. So...

Bill Ayer:

It's funny. Cause I always use the “hunt of a lifetime”. You know, if I'm going to need an extra day or if I need a week to get away or even if I'm going to be home late, I'm like... sending a text message: “Hey, it's the hunt of a lifetime.” And then so now I've used it so much she, my wife just cuts me off. She's like, I know, “it's a hunt of a lifetime. Just have fun.” So, seems to come up a lot every year. Well, cool. So Matt, so you're doing photography. Do you sell your photography or are you just out helping folks with content? What do you do with your photography?

Matt Carey:

Yeah, I mean, so like I mentioned before, it really just started out of wanting to continue my hunting season. So it has been like a hobby for a while and mostly was just shooting birds. I mean, for probably like the first year that I was shooting photos, I only shot pictures of ducks and was really trying to capture, just learn how to use the camera, but learn how to capture birds in flight, which is not the easiest way to learn how to use the camera. I don't recommend it if you're just trying to understand the settings and everything, but yeah, so it kind of morphed into that.

Matt Carey:

And then I realized, oh, I can take pictures of other things besides ducks and trying to capture the, just the experience that I had come to love over the last few years and then share that with people. I started showing some of these photos I had taken to people, showing them to my friends and people that don't really hunt and they're like, whoa, that's cool. I think I'd like to go duck hunting. That looks cool. I've never seen a place quite like that in my whole life, you know?

Bill Ayer:

Yeah.

Matt Carey:

And just like some of the places that we get to go when we go and chase after these birds is just, you would never ever see it. If you weren't chasing ducks. And so it's just such a cool thing to be able to share with people. So then after I realized that I was like, well, I just want to inspire other people to try to do this thing. And so for the longest time it has been a hobby, but over the last year I've been kind of focusing on, okay...It turns out like I'm actually maybe better at this than I had imagined I would be and could maybe be more of a hobby and maybe also help me to do more of this thing I love so much closer to full time than just doing it in my free time.

Matt Carey:

And most of the work that I have been doing outside of photography is freelance work. So I have a pretty flexible schedule to hunt a lot. I get out, I would say probably most mornings during the season, but being able to connect with other people that love the sport and companies like you guys that just, you want to see the hunting community flourish and you want to see more people experience the sport and just kind of partnering with different people to do that. And I think everything that I've seen so far is like, I have a unique perspective and on all, it seems like a lot of people who hunt, it is something they've done their whole life or their dad taught them.

Matt Carey:

And there's, there's not a lot of maybe late bloomers, which is kind of what we need to build up and then set up the next generation.

Bill Ayer:

Yep.

Matt Carey:

And so that's been my goal with it all. I wouldn't say I've sold a ton of photos or made a lot of money doing it. It's something I want to do more and now pursuing a bit more. I'd be happy to make money off of it, but I like being able to inspire people and just do something different. A lot that I've noticed even in the hunting industry, specifically with photos and creative things, videos as well, people are in this very niche thing. That's like, there's all the other things going on, but they're focusing on hunting to take photos and everybody's photos look exactly the same.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah.

Matt Carey:

And everybody's taking the same angles and trying to copy each other. And so, one of the things I also want to do is just inspire other creative people to just try something different because we've done something from a PR perspective that it's not, the industry's not really growing and the community's not growing. So something needs to change to inspire people. Whether it's the way we communicate it to other people or the photos and the way it's portrayed. So I avoid the pile pic type things, I don't like posting things like that. Not, not that I don't think it's cool. I think it's great to be able to show people like, man, we harvested a lot and we're really grateful for this great day. And as a memory I take those photos personally for me and I keep them on my phone, but I don't post it.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah.

Matt Carey:

Mainly just because I want to portray it in a different light that probably the outsiders don't get to see. I want them to see the beauty of it and the cool factor over the blood and the numbers of harvest or however, however you want to say it.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. One of my favorite times of duck hunting is that half hour before shoot time, you get all set up, you get your decoys set up, your dog's kind of sitting there shivering and on the verge of floating and everybody's just kind of sitting quietly and you're hearing ducks land in your set. You're hearing the wings whistling above you. You're hearing mallards quacking in the distance, quacking nearby. There's such a sense of peace. There's such a sense of being what I almost want to say united with the wild or nature, right? Like you feel very connected. That's probably a better way of saying, I just feel so connected to nature and God's creation, right? And you're sitting there and you're just listening to it all. And I try to capture it on my phone.

Bill Ayer:

I just sent an audio clip to Lisa, our graphic designer. I'm like, I don't know what you can do with this, but I want to do something different. Like how do you capture that? And then portray it to the hunting community. Because how many of us have sat there half hour before shoot time listening to that complete silence and just taking in that moment. And I would love for people like you to be able to capture that and then give it back to those who don't hunt and those who do hunt and be able to be like, yes, that's what it's about. You know? And then watch the sun come up and the different angles. It starts your decoys and the river, the lake and the trees and how it comes up. How many people wake up in the morning and watch the sun come up in nature. And it's such a cool experience. And for me, that's why I hunt, I don't hunt to get a big pile of birds. It's nice. It's fun. But that, that doesn't drive me. So...

Matt Carey:

Yeah, for sure. I mean those views, I always like to rate the sunrises and all it's like, oh man, that was the best. That was the best one of the season, some of those views are crazy. There was a hunt I did, I was solo. And I had kayaked into this swampy kind of flooded timber area. And I had invited my buddy to come with me, but he backed out the night before. And so I paddle in there all alone, I get all set up and it's what you're talking about it. But nothing was happening before shooting time. I was like, oh, this one of those days where I'm just going to sit here and enjoy the sights. And then all of a sudden right after shooting light, there was just so much going on.

Matt Carey:

And I mean, if I had five guys there, we probably would've all shot our limit.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah.

Matt Carey:

But,  I like, for the first five minutes, I was so surprised at what was happening. I just sat there and I didn't shoot. I was watching and just so excited, mallards just dropping in and fluttering like 10 feet in front of my face. And they have no idea that I'm there and you just kind of get this unique experience of, oh, this is what happens when I'm not here. You know? And that is the fun part too, about the photo thing. Since I don't disturb them or I try not to disturb them when I'm shooting photos I learn a lot about hunting and how to effectively hunt. But I learn a lot just watching the birds and get to see what they do when I'm not there bothering them. And I don't have decoys set out and all that stuff. It's just really, really cool to just see what they do.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm lucky enough to have a small pond in front of the house and ducks come and go out of that. As the fall comes, I start to get more ducks and then some widgeon will come up and then it freezes over and then they move on. But I'll sit on my porch and just watch them and listen to them and watch when birds fly over and the noises they make, the sounds they make, the comeback calls, the the hell calls, the greeting calls and the feeding. Me as a hunter just to sit back and watch and listen versus worrying about shooting and killing, it's pretty cool. So Hayden, what's your favorite part of the hunt? Mines probably that half hour before shoot time and, and shoot time. What's your favorite part of the hunt?

Hayden Martin:

My favorite part of the hunt's just hanging out with everyone in the blind and just chit-chatting because you can't really do that during deer hunting and turkey hunting. And I have trouble hearing sometimes. So just being able to just chat with one another, sip on coffee, sip on the energy drink, eat, enjoy the donuts, whatever we're having, and just building that brotherhood and that friendship up over just watching the world, wake up, watching the birds, fly in, and watching the dogs, getting ready to work. It's just just doing the time with each other. That's my favorite part.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. Yeah. We bring our nephew out and he's always on his cell phone out there and his dad's always like, I'm going to take that thing away from you. We're duck hunting, we're not looking at phones. We're doing what you're talking about Hayden; we're creating a brotherhood and friendships that last forever and chit chat and give each other bad time for missing and all that good stuff. But is there anything that you guys want to talk about as far as if there's folks out there listening who A. Feel like they can't do it or B. Maybe they're not even disabled, maybe they just don't have the confidence to go do it because they don't know about it. Anything that you guys would want to say to that audience?

Matt Carey:

Yeah. I'll say something from kind of the other side of it — being the person who's really helping Hayden and figuring out the plans and all that and how this is all going to work. I would say to anybody who's like, not so sure, just ask somebody for help. If you know somebody who loves it and then is physically capable of helping you in whatever way you might need, depending on your situation. Just ask somebody for help. I've found all of my hunting buddies, we had a hunt last year where Hayden came out and there was probably like six of us and every single guy that was there was willing to help and asking him how can I help you?

Matt Carey:

What do you need? What can I do? And at some point everybody did something to help make it all come together and happen. And so, I think that if you're unsure or you're waiting or you don't want to ask anybody for help, I know that's kind of not — I think it’s not a lot of people's favorite thing when you don't want to ask anybody for help because you already feel like, or you could feel like you're maybe a burden to somebody and just you got to get past that and just ask somebody for help. And people are usually more willing to help, especially, I think, duck hunters are a different kind of people as well. I think there may be some of these other folks, no offense to whoever you are, duck hunters are really just a different breed and even the things you guys were talking about about the relationships formed and you can talk and you're, you're there for more than just a harvest. So I'd encourage that.

Matt Carey:

I just want to brag on Hayden too. He's trusted me to do some crazy stuff where I'm carrying him somewhere or tossing him up into a boat out of the water or dragging him in that kayak and that thing's tipping. And I can just hear him go, whoa, whoa.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. When you said kayak, I'm like, wow man, you've got a lot of trust in this dude because...I don't know. I'm 6'4, 250 pounds and I don't feel good in a kayak at all. I need something a little wider and it's more stable.

Hayden Martin: 

Oh yeah, no, I'm not a fan of that kayak at all, but we found out that it works and it gets me out to how we can do it. So it worked. And once you find something that works, that can get you from point A to point B, you’ve found step one. Now you try to find something else that works and you slowly start building in a contingency plan. If the kayak doesn't work, how does piggybacking work? Or, how do you feel about lifting me this way in order to get into position, to get me into the blind this way, or just, it's just little maneuvering around that really make a difference in a hunt and whatnot.

Hayden Martin:

Because a lot of the time people who might be disabled or have limited capabilities, they have a different kind of eyesight for the way the ground is or the blind is than someone who physically can. Because someone who has that limited capabilities, they're able to just see the way that someone's standing and the way their feet placement is in order to move into the position, to lift them into the boat, lift them into, into the blind that the person who is doing the act can't.

Bill Ayer:

Got it. Cool. Do you shoot, Hayden?

Hayden Martin:

I don't shoot ducks yet, but I figured out over the past couple years that I can shoot a 410 for turkey hunting and I can shoot a modified 223 for deer hunting. And I also have a crossbow that I can shoot as well. So that's another thing that disabled hunters might have a problem doing, just figuring out, well, how can I get involved in this sport if I can't shoot a weapon at the animal. So it's all about trying to figure out what's going to work best for you for the animal you're shooting.

Hayden Martin:

And sometimes that just involves taking the baby steps of, okay, we're going to start at the 28 gauge. Then we're going to work our way down to the 20 gauge. Then we're going to do 12 gauge and so on and so forth until you figure out what works best for you. And I mean, I know that that goes hand in hand with the regular hunters as far as figuring out which handgun works for you, which rifle works for you. But I know people with the disabilities, sometimes they're worried about certain ligaments tearing or things that might be harmful to them in the long run. But just figuring out the gun that's going to work. will just take a little bit longer.

Bill Ayer:

Very good. Well, I got to tell you, we're super happy to have you guys part of the Slayer family, your brotherhood, your commitment to the sport and to each other and to your buddies. To Hayden, you're an inspiration to us all getting out there. Sometimes I don't feel like waking up in the morning cause I got a little headache or I was out elk hunting and my ankle hurt a little bit and I was like, I don't know if I should hike today. You know? So I think about you in those situations now that I know you and I'm like, well, Hayden could do it. I could do it, you know?

Hayden Martin:

Yes, sir.

Bill Ayer:

Yeah. So you're an inspiration to us all and I'm super happy that you're getting out there and working your dog and appreciate having you on the podcast.

Hayden Martin:

Absolutely. I'm glad to be a part of the family.

Bill Ayer:

All right, gentlemen. Thank you.