If you were to book a hunt with Dusty Brown, and listen to the multi-time contest winner run a call, or see the piles he stacks up at the end of his hunts, you’d probably have a hard time believing it was all self-taught talent. You’d probably think it comes from generations of waterfowl hunting heritage and traditions. You’d be wrong. The Oregon native grew up in a rodeoing, big game hunting family that didn’t have much to do with waterfowl hunting. That led to Dusty trying to figure out the sport on his own. Which, in turn, also fueled the fire for him to become one of the most lethal waterfowl guides in the business. Split Reed recently had the chance to sit down with Dusty Brown, to talk about his start in waterfowl hunting, his time on the contest calling stage, and of course, his time spent as a master waterfowl guide.

“I started out hunting primarily ducks on the Pudding River near my hometown in Silverton, Oregon”, Brown says, “My dad was a saddle-bronc rider and rodeoed his whole life, so he was gone quite a bit, but he would take me deer hunting, but he was never a waterfowler. Most of the stuff I did was just self-taught, and we just went out there and winged it”. Brown talks about his early intrigue with duck calls and other hunting gadgets that he had to learn how to use by means of trial and error. “You couldn’t get on callingducks.com and listen to someone who knew how to run a call, so we just kind of faked it. It wasn’t until I got into competition calling did I actually know what I was supposed to do” Brown says. Learning began with cassette tapes from Tim Grounds or Sean Mann. It wasn’t until Dusty was older and able to go to contests that he learned the finesse and small details of calling ducks and geese.

It also didn’t make things easy that Brown got into waterfowling right at the start of the steel shot conversion. “I think I shot lead maybe one time before we had to switch over to steel,” he says. Recounting, like all veteran hunters do, the challenge of trying to hunt with the early stages of steel shot. “They didn’t have the patterns figured out, or the burn rates, or the velocity. It was all just complete junk. I don’t know if I was just a crappy shot or the steel shot just sucked that bad, but we struggled killing stuff for years until either the loads got better, or we became better shots. I don’t really know. I just remember absolutely pounding ducks and they would just fly off” says Dusty. He also makes mention that when he started hunting, it was strictly ducks. There were hardly any geese to be shot, much less the cacklers that the PNW is so well known for. “I don’t recall going on a real goose hunt until after high school,” says Brown.

Dusty also found his way into rodeo, like his dad. Brown steer wrestled, calf roped, and team roped. Something he did all the way through college. When asked if he ever considered pursuing rodeo as a career he said, “I think I had the ability to pursue team roping after college. I probably could have gone further, but my interests just got driven elsewhere. I mean it’s expensive to have nice horses and to have all the equipment to ride at the level. It was just out of my realm”. After that, it was waterfowl hunting for Brown, with some big game hunting in between. “I still try to time things so I’m able to get out and chase bulls with my rifle,” he says.

When asked what gave him the desire to go be a guide, Brown simply responded, “Contest calling”. He went on to explain, “I was really into goose calls, and I wanted to compete and I wanted to get better at calling geese. I didn’t chase duck contests that much. I did some local two-man stuff but nothing major. I just really wanted to get good at goose calling, and that’s really what drove me to get more into the sport and take it beyond just the weekend goose hunter”. Dusty traveled all over- from his home on the West Coast to the World Goose Contest on the East Coast, just to blow in calling contests. Dusty is a multi-time Oregon State goose calling champion, with multiple other 1st place finishes notched into his belt. Along with countless other Top 5 finishes at other elite-level calling contests. No wonder that Bill Saunders Calls (Dusty’s call of choice) actually offers a set of worn in goose call guts molded after the ones that Dusty uses.

With the exception of the few big game hunts here and there, and maybe a waterfowl hunt with a few friends, it became all guiding for Dusty. “I got my first guiding gig when I was 25, so I guess I got started in the game a little bit late, but once I did get started, it was pedal to the metal. I just didn’t stop” he says. Brown started his guiding career with Webfoot Outfitters in Knox City, Texas, and then just kept moving up the ladder, helping clients put birds on the ground. Despite the long hours on the road and multiple weeks and even months spent away from home, Brown has a deep passion for the guiding lifestyle. Dusty does say that he wishes he would have made the jump to create his own ‘Dusty Brown Guide Service’, leaving him with the luxury of working for just himself, and not having to work for a boss. “In the world of ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ I wish I would have started something on my own,” he says. However, with the ability to have guided for so many different outfitters all over the country, comes the ability to have a vast amount of experience to pull from to make sure his clients are as successful as possible. “When I started out I would just take someone’s word that a field was going to hunt, or that everything was going to work. But now, I’m a little more confident in myself, and I know a bit more about what I’m doing, I have a mental checklist of what I’m looking for before I take a client to the field. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m pretty picky about before I’ll take a group of people out on a hunt. I have to ask questions like: is it going to shoot right in the wind? How far do the birds have to travel off the roost? Will anyone get in the way of us and the birds? Just stuff like that”. Brown says that when he started in Texas, he got really good at hunting cranes, but that didn’t come by luck. Dusty has a meticulous system of different scenarios that have allowed him to see so much success on his crane hunts (and all his other hunts for that matter). “I would drive past feeds with ten-thousand birds in it if I found somewhere that I thought I could run traffic and use the resources better. It was just a matter of really learning how to use the wind and your surroundings to your advantage” Brown says.

However, like everything in life, there have been hardpoints for Brown. One such point came in late 2001 when he and Brian Schreckenbach set up a guide service in Alberta. “We were legal, we had all our work permits and our zones figured out, and we put all our eggs into one basket, then 9/11 happened”. Dusty mentions that they had over 30 clients scheduled to hunt with them that September and October, but because of the tragic event, the borders were closed. Dusty continues on by saying, “I was kind of a dumbass and financed everything on a credit card, and when all that happened, it pretty much pulled the plug on my first self-ran Canada guiding deal”. A hard pill to swallow, on all accounts. Not many people take into account the possibility of terrorist attacks when starting up a business of their own. Luckily for Dusty, he had the talent and ability to keep guiding for other outfits even after 9/11 sent his own project into a tailspin.

“I’ve worked for probably a half dozen guide services in Canada, and probably about the same in the States,” Dusty says, recounting the different outfitters he’s helped out throughout his extensive career in the industry. “All of them have their different ways of doing things, you just try to take what you’ve learned, and what they’re doing, and make it work. I know that if I have an idea, and it’s not going to get in the way of what the outfitter is doing, and I think it’s going to kill birds, I’ll do that.” Brown says that you still have to understand that you do have a boss, and you have to do what they want, but you also need to learn how to be confident enough in yourself to make decisions on your own on how to kill birds. All the guiding still doesn’t detract from some good personal hunting though. “I still try to make sure I get out on my own and enjoy my own hunts,” says Brown. In light of the current situation we’re in, Dusty says “It’s just killing me that I can’t be up in Canada right now. I’m missing a good solid month of just ‘Dusty killin’ time’” he jokes.

The glory does come at a price, Dusty notes. Time spent away from home, very few hours of sleep, wear and tear on your truck, all things that factor into being a guide. “I know guys that guide in their home state, and their damn good guides, but if they want they can drive 6 or 8 hours and they’re home. For me, I’m gone for 8 months out of the year. That part’s hard. Other guys get to go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas or the holidays. ” Dusty, who doesn’t even guide in the same flyway as his home state of Oregon, isn’t afforded those luxuries. Instead, he sacrifices them to the life of being a guide. All a part of the price to pay to be great at what you do. Brown does say that he finds joy in being around people that are excited to be hunting every day. “For a lot of people, that might be their only trip of the year or one of only a few, and when they get out of the truck in the morning they’re just shot out of a cannon and I just feed off that,” says Dusty. Seeing the enthusiasm and excitement that people bring to the field is something that still lights that fire for Brown, even after all the many years he’s spent afield.

Dusty will be guiding this coming season with Prairie Rock Outfitters in Nebraska, as the operations manager for their goose division, something he says he’s very excited about. Dusty has guided for everything from ducks, to Spring snows, but nowadays finds himself starting his season on cranes in Texas, then moving to Eastern Wyoming, Western Nebraska to get after the honkers. Using all the past experiences he’s gathered over the years to help his clients kill birds and enjoy successful hunts. When asked what makes a good guide, Brown responded “Being well rounded. There are guys that are good at snow geese and guys that are good at ducks, and guys that are good at killing little geese, and big honkers, but if you can be good at killing all of them, you’re going to be ahead of the curve”. That curve is something that Dusty has seemed to be ahead of his entire guiding career; from his start in Texas to Habitat Flats, to Canada, to South Dakota, and everywhere in between. Dusty Brown has been a master killer all over the place, helping clients fill bag limits, and enjoy this amazing experience we call waterfowl hunting.

Guide Life: Dusty Brown

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