By Waterfowlers, For Waterfowlers: Hard Core Decoys

Breaking news – it has just been announced that Hard Core Decoys is now owned by Hard Core Brands International, LLC and Jim Shiefelbein…click here to read the press release.

Not every company can live up to its tagline, much less its name. Hard Core Decoys, manufacturer and supplier of premium waterfowl decoys, is one that can. Hard Core Decoys makes decoys for the true “hard core” waterfowl hunters out there, the ones that hunt 99% of the days open for waterfowl season, missing that 1% for a brother’s wedding or a friend’s homecoming. That much was evident as I spoke with Vice President Mike Galloway on the phone: he was on the road in the Mississippi Delta, looking out for birds in the midst of a hunt. I was lucky enough to catch him for the low-down on just what Hard Core Decoys is all about.

“What sets us apart from our competitors is that our products are made by waterfowlers, for waterfowlers,” Galloway says. Every member of the staff, from the creators and manufacturers to (of course) the pro staff who put the decoys to the test out in the field, participates in the pursuit of the elusive game. “We’re not just some conglomerate that absorbed a decoy maker. We’re the guys who are part of the sport,” Galloway continues. “When we make decoys, we don’t just pick one body and put four different postures on it. Each one of our decoys is dynamic and as close to reality as possible.”

Galloway is drawn to the sport, and by extension the industry, for the camaraderie and the social nature of a waterfowl hunt. “I love to deer hunt, but that’s basically a solo activity,” Galloway explains, continuing that “waterfowl hunting is a communal activity. While you’re out there, you share stories or a cigar with your buddies in the covert. You watch that Mississippi Delta sunrise together, and if there’s anything in this world that will make you believe in God, it’s that.” On his own dedication to the hunt, Galloway adds “in pursuit of waterfowl, you’re actually hunting. There’s serious thought involved – you mess up a single thing or improperly position a single decoy and those birds aren’t coming anywhere near you. It’s chess and it’s checkers: you’ve gotta think, but you’ve also got plenty of action and in the end you’re having fun.”

Hard Core takes that deep sense of community and the “team hunt” attitude into their products. They make decoys not only that the consumer wants, but that they want. “We wouldn’t put our name on a decoy that we wouldn’t use or stand behind ourselves. Our decoys perfectly recreate resting postures, sleeping postures and every possible true waterfowl position – no detail or expense is spared in the creation of our products,” Galloway asserts.

Everything Galloway told me about over the phone was backed up by Rick Carone, one of Hard Core’s pro staff and an expert waterfowl hunter who I spoke to after interviewing Mike. He sang the praises of the decoys themselves, saying “partly, they’re the perfect replication of a real goose. And what’s more, they’ve got so many different poses that it allows you to make your decoy flock so much more dynamic and realistic. Not all decoys do that.” Then, touching on the camaraderie alluded to by the Hard Core VP, Carone detailed a “wounded warrior” hunt they took an Afghan vet on during his recent return to the United States.

“Mike [Galloway] sent an email around to all of us asking if we’d be able to lend a hand, and he immediately got an overwhelming response in support,” Carone says. Echoing what Galloway had just told me minutes before, Carone added that “we went out to hunt with the vet and shared stories, from war and from hunts. We thanked him for his service, got his own opinions on what was happening overseas and then some. It wasn’t just about the birds but about the fact of being out on the hunt with your friends, new and old.” Straight out of the battlefield and into the wetlands, Hard Core remains dedicated to those who dedicate themselves to the pursuit of difficult game.

In addition to their personal commitment to their work, they go beyond the call of duty and back up their products with promises unique to the industry. For one thing, they absolutely guarantee delivery to retailers. “That’s a huge thing in the decoy market,” Galloway explained to me, “a lot of the times companies oversell and under deliver. Not so with us.” Adding to that, Galloway says “if you have an issue with one of your decoys, we guarantee that when you call Hard Core you will be speaking directly with a member of the Hard Core team who will help you out, not some call service in India.”

One thing you can’t say about Hard Core is that they’re static or stuck in their ways. Galloway could hardly contain his excitement over the phone, telling me that very soon they’ll be “blowing the doors off the outdoor industry.” As much as I pried, Galloway’s lips were sealed about the details.

Whatever happens in the year to come, you can be sure to hear about it first on Outdoor Hub.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - By Waterfowlers, For Waterfowlers: Hard Core Decoys

Winter Rabbit Hunting, Making the Most Out of Winter

The snow falls as does the temperature.  After a stretch of several months with a revolving door of human activity, the fields and forests now more closely resemble a ghost town.  There’s no reason to go out there anymore.  This is the perception of those that do not seek out the cottontail rabbit.  They sit huddled in their warm homes, left to reflect on their exploits in October and November.  Their guns and bows have been put away in storage, and their attention has shifted to football, shoveling snow, and maybe the occasional trip to ice fish or snowmobile.

For me and others like me that follow beagle dogs in snow after the ubiquitous cottontail rabbit, this is the season that we live for.  There was a time when small game like rabbits were the object of all hunters young and old alike, but the proliferation of the white-tailed deer has changed the focus of the American hunter.  I hunt deer too, but secretly I relish having the winter to myself, or seemingly so, to run my beagles after cottontails.  After months of sitting quietly in a tree or in a blind waiting for luck to chance my way, I’m ready to get out into the stillness of a frozen world and listen to a chorus of excited hounds in full chase, ready bust the brush to make something happen, ready to holler and laugh with a companion at a shot made or missed on a returning rabbit.  The season is mine.

Perhaps it is the seeming loneliness of the cold winter landscape that adds to the bond felt between my hunting companions, mostly close family members, and myself.  We are out there, the only humans within sight partaking in a unified goal.  An effort we take very seriously and attempt with great intensity, yet at the same time one we address with the light-heartedness and total enjoyment that makes undertaking such a task in relatively harsh conditions fully enjoyable.  Our faces get beaten red from the chaffing winds and the bright sun bouncing off the snow-covered ground.  If the snow gets too deep, the legs throb from lifting and setting back down of tall heavy boots.  We work up a sweat that soon chills the body in an attempt to roust our quarry from their hiding places.  But the broad smiles we share cannot be hidden, even as our lips crack and bleed in doing so.  Like minded hunters make for a fun hunt even when the rabbits are not running.  The season is ours.

And then there are the beagles, the true stars of the show.  For those that have never hunted behind beagles, ones that come from hunting lines that have been raised to hunt, you simply cannot realize the drive of these little hounds.  Pound for pound, I’d put a beagle against any other hunter, man or beast, for pure drive after game.  I see what these dogs run through time and time again, never ceasing, never giving up, and I am filled with love and admiration at a fellow living thing that not only feels the passion for the chase as I do, but one that exceeds it.  The effort I put into hunting rabbits pales in comparison to that put forth by the beagles.  Similarly, the great pleasure that I derive from hunting rabbits also pales in comparison to that which my beagles get.  I don’t know if dogs can technically smile, but one look into my beagles’ eyes after running a rabbit tells me that they’ve achieved a happiness that the human spirit, burdened with our responsibilities and troubles, can never hope to reach.   To hear a brace of beagles running a rabbit in a frozen swamp, the music of their voices piercing the crisp air and knowing that they will circle that wily critter back to you, is to know heaven.  One cannot feel cold when he knows that as that distant howling gets louder and closer, the object of the chase is coming your way and you need to start scanning for the little brown jet through the brush.  The moment of truth approaches and the heart begins pounding as the realization of the coming shot approaches.  The season is theirs.

And I would be remiss in failing to mention the cottontail rabbit, a creature which is prey for so many hunters, man and beast.  Such a simple creature that lives a simple  life, eating and breeding as much as it can in a short amount of time, as if knowing more than any other creature that its time on this earth is short.  No game animal so closely matches the tenacity and drive of its pursuers as the cottontail rabbit does to the beagle.  So closely matched are the two that the existence of one without the other seems like it would put the universe out of balance.  And while the cottontail seemingly has the world against it, Nature takes care of her own.  Don’t pity the rabbit, for it will quickly make a fool out of you if you think twice about pulling the trigger on one.  I’ve emptied a 12 gauge autoloader at racing rabbits only to see them waving that cotton-ball tail at me as if giving me the middle finger as they ran off laughing.  You bet I feel respect and admiration for those rabbits we chase, and it’s probably not a stretch to say I feel a love for them too.  This season is all of ours.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Winter Rabbit Hunting, Making the Most Out of Winter

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