I’ve been making almost annual treks to Arkansas to duck and goose hunt for the past decade. Most of the time, our hunting group includes women hunters … but this year, I decided to invite my best friend, aka hubby, and another friend – who also wanted to invite her husband. The four of us headed out for the second split of the 2025 season, to one of my favorite guide services – Bust-A-Duck (B.A.D.) – located near Gregory.
One thing that rings so true about waterfowl hunting is that you might hit a dry spell. In fact, on past hunts I’ve not lifted a shotgun one day and limited out on geese and ducks the next day. This is where experienced guides who can read the skies, the weather, the terrain and maybe sense where you might get lucky, come in. Buster Cooper, proprietor of B.A.D., hired guides who bent over backwards to make sure we all had the best hunting experiences possible.
From using ice-eaters on frigid days, to changing up decoy spreads to working with well-trained dogs, the guides at B.A.D. are pros, and exhibit a form of camaraderie that I’ve seen exhibited and talked about in well-run military units.
Armed with a trusty Beretta A400 Xtreme Plus, and using Fiocchi’s Flyway Series #3 (ducks) and Golden Waterfowl in BBs (geese), I certainly had the capability to toe-tag a few ducks and geese. All four of used the Fiocchi ammo, with four different shotguns in play and without a single malfunction and with some success. In fact, fine specimens of a mallard drake and a specklebelly goose went to the taxidermist after the hunts.
Unfortunately, we got hit with an ice bubble on the second day. The ice bubble quickly crusted over the rice fields and dropped the temperatures from the 60s to … 4. (Up in the Dakotas, people stayed home and blizzard conditions made travel hazardous.)
That called for busting out cold weather gear. I am a firm believer in Merino wool in layers under waders. Most of my wool clothing for cold weather hunting comes from WoolX. I like the fit, the form and the price. We all wore various degrees of insulated waders, mine being the least of the bunch (600 grams versus 1600 grams).
Our guide kept the heaters going, and that kept our fingers and toes from freezing. Too bad he couldn’t have turned the heaters out onto the ice, like a heated skate park with a patch of wet for the ducks to land and swim around in.
But, as Buster says … it’s all about the experience. I fondly recall a time a few years ago, in Doc’s Blind on the Cache River, when everything had slowed down and no ducks were coming in. Buster looked at us and stated, “Well, I believe it’s about time, as Phil Robertson says, to ‘eat our way out of this situation.’” He then broke out chili and heated it up for us. Note: Standard B.A.D. blind fare includes burritos made with all the fixings and then some of yesterday’s big brunch. You might see potatoes, eggs, sausage, bacon, cheese, etc. It makes for a delicious snack.
Back in the B.A.D. kitchen, Miss Linda used her culinary prowess to create tasty meals, and menfolk who didn’t like collard greens were suddenly extolling the virtues of this humble vegetable. Homemade cookies kept appearing under the glass dome and pork so tender you could cut it with a fork heralded dinner on the last evening. We shared the lodge with a family of guys from Alabama, and it was fun to see three generations together.
The fire pit, even on cold nights, roared an invitation to spend some time outdoors warming up at least one side of your body.
The B.A.D. Circus
Buster established a permanent goose-hunting blind – aka the B.A.D. Circus – where the decoys are in place and guides don’t have to get up at 3 a.m. to set hundreds of goose decoys. He purchased a semi-trailer and designed it to hold several hunters, along with heaters, benches, chairs and other creature comforts. The best thing is that the geese keep on coming to it – especially since it sits between two areas of water. We went there twice and enjoyed bringing down 7 geese one day and 9 the next. We saw thousands, and at that point, a reach of about 200 yards with our shot would have worked well. But still, we saw and heard them and that was a sight to behold.
Duck hunting gets under my skin. I don’t live anywhere near a flyway or even a place where resident ducks land. If I did, I might be sorely tempted to succumb to being a wannabe Duck Commander. I might even buy a black lab.
For the rest of my life, though, when I can, I will make trips to hunt with Buster and crew. I believe these guys are the last bastion of what duck hunting was like in the old days – when people hunted for the love of the hunt, and not for the Instagram pile of ducks they could post. And that’s a whole ’nother topic.
It’s not too late to book a goose hunt with Buster and crew for 2026. He says there are a few spots left.
Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com. View all posts by Barbara Baird
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