Editor’s note: This interview took place in 2010, before Duck Dynasty debuted, and it’s been so popular that we decided to update it with some never-before-printed quotes and tips from Phil.
Click the links for the original full interview. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
…Wind
The wind needs to be in your favor. The blind must be facing with the wind in your favor. They’re going to come against it. The stronger the wind is, the more they’re going to come against it. And they’ll come the same way every time. They won’t vary five feet; they’ll come the same way every time.
…Smell
You have to remember, ducks do smell you. A lot of people don’t believe that. Gadwalls are the best smellers of all of them.
A lot of times when you see ducks coming, and they’ll almost get there and then right before they’re in — like 60 yards or 50 — they don’t flare off, they just raise up…The Mayan Indians down in Mexico, when that happens, they point to their nose and say the ducks smell us. The Indian guides move out on the sides and they hammer ’em.
…Missing
We scientifically proved (the way most people miss). We got in a 50-foot cypress — all the way up — we put a blind up on top of it. We were above the ducks. The ducks would come down in the hole. It gave us the opportunity to see where the pattern was. You could see where you missed. You’d see the pattern hit. After about 10 years of hunting that thing, we found that 99.9 percent of the time, when everybody missed, it was behind him. We scientifically proved, when people miss flying things, it’s behind them.
