Shotgun Sports USA
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Shotgun Sports USA
Cameron Hicks: The whole story
I am glad to welcome a guest who has accomplished more in his life than most of us can imagine. Cameron Hicks, the son of a former Team USA member, was instilled with a relentless drive for perfection from a young age. This upbringing set the stage for a life characterized by determination and resilience, where quitting was never an option. His story is truly remarkable, filled with diverse experiences and incredible achievements.
Cameron's journey is nothing short of extraordinary. He has excelled in multiple fields, proving himself as a motocross racer, golfer, sporting clays shooter, and, remarkably, a Green Beret. Each of these demands a unique set of skills and an unwavering commitment to excellence, and Cameron has not only met but exceeded these challenges.
Welcome to Shotgun Sports USA. Powered by Winchester Ammunition, the American Legend. Listen to the best shotgun shooters from all over the world in every discipline Championship winning coaches, gun clubs, target setters, vendors, as well as companies that make it all happen, brought to you by Briley Rick Hemingway's Promatic Trap Sales, cole Gunsmithing, clay, target Vision, castellani USA and Falcon Strike.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening and remember to visit us online at ShotgunSportsUSAcom like us on a guy that has done a lot in his life and probably experienced more than most of us can imagine. Growing up the son of a former Team USA member where perfection was the only answer, he was set at an early age to never quit at anything. His story is quite amazing, what he's done and what he's been through. Please welcome to the show a motocross racer, a golfer, a duck hunting machine, a shooter and a Green Beret Cameron Hicks. Beret cameron hicks, I don't know what to call you anymore. I call you cameron or cam either one.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, whatever you want, I can just call you whatever, yeah yeah, whatever you want, hey you know we did a podcast I don't know four or five, three, I don't know how many years ago it was and uh, I had to take it down. I was asked to take it down politely and uh, now we're finally getting to do one that I can leave up, I think yeah, I know, hopefully this one will.
Speaker 3:Uh, we'll be able to stay up. That'd'd be pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what are you doing? Where are you at? What are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm in a hotel room in Madison, Wisconsin, watching Trump get hammered on the TV. It's kind of sad.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're talking about convicted from all the stuff that he did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 34 counts. They didn't even cut him any slack. Yeah, that's kind of a bad deal.
Speaker 2:He even fixed his hair. He even fixed his hair. Huh, I said, he even fixed his hair.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean he looked good and hats off to him for sticking it out like that, but I mean that's kind of a bad deal for the whole country, do you?
Speaker 2:follow this stuff Politics.
Speaker 3:A little bit. Not the point I'm at in my life right now. I'm just, uh, I've I've totally accepted the fact that you know there's not much that me or anybody else stretching about it can do. Um, just kind of, you know, sit back and watch the world end and kick your feet up. You know, take care of your family and do everything you can on your end, but there's nothing you can do to change some of this stuff happening.
Speaker 3:I mean you know you look at Venezuela and what happened in Venezuela. They didn't think it could happen. And then six months later you know you look at Venezuela and what happened in Venezuela. They didn't think it could happen. And then six months later you know they're eating their pets and shit. I mean you know it's a bad deal. I'm kind of a I probably sound a little bit out there talking about it, but you know I'm kind of on the train that we live a very spoiled lifestyle. You know you just look at what you're doing right now. I mean I'm in Wisconsin shooting, doing what I want to do in a rental car. I flew up here, didn't have to ask anyone permission. That's not normal, you know. So I think we take for granted, it takes about three days. Three days and all this can be gone. Uh, so three days. Hopefully that doesn't happen. But this, this, this is. It's just sad to watch.
Speaker 2:What's three days mean? It takes that long to. What's that mean? Oh, three days, I mean something could be over with quickly.
Speaker 3:That's plenty of time.
Speaker 2:Nice. I guess we know that now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's plenty of time.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's you know so, anyway, what you've been doing lately? I've seen all you got an Instagram page. It's gone, haywire you know, you've. You got cool hunting videos out with a shot cam and what. What are you doing?
Speaker 3:I don't know, man. Uh, it's like a, it's like funded homelessness, kind of um, I'm having a great time, I'm having an absolute blast, and I didn't. This wasn't really how.
Speaker 3:I planned it going. This isn't what I planned on doing when I got out of the army, um, but it just kind of happened. I was pretty firm, pretty firm set that I was going to move to Argentina and just go be a bird boy in Argentina until I got tired of it. I was talked out of that. I'm still not sold that that's not going to happen eventually.
Speaker 2:Why would you want to do that? I can understand.
Speaker 3:You want to shoot them, but you, you want to be the guy that picks them up loads of shotguns. I like bird murder, man, I'm a, I'm a. I like killing ducks. I like watching ducks being killed. I like using my dogs to go get the ducks. That we, I mean I, I just, I don't know man, I just thought it'd be cool. Yeah, be a good, a good reset. I mean, really, that's kind of what I wanted was a reset. So, you know, I, I settled for what was supposed to be a 10 day long hunting trip to Nebraska with my cousin turned into 45 days. Um basically left on December 1st and got back February 2nd, hunted seven States, 107 States. Um drove, I think, close to 7,000 miles. I mean, it was, it was fine, that was, that was the best thing that I ever could have done for myself at the perfect time. Um, and it was, it was, it was awesome.
Speaker 2:So what all? Where? Where did you go?
Speaker 3:Well, we started and we started it. I can't even remember now. We started in Nebraska. From Nebraska we went to Arkansas for the first time. I went to Arkansas, I think four, four times total. Um. From there I went to Texas, I don't know, texas, to Kentucky, to Tennessee, to Oklahoma, to back to Arkansas, to North Carolina. Yeah, I honestly don't even know. I'd have to sit down for probably an hour to come at it out. I don't even remember.
Speaker 3:I just know we killed a lot of birds and the only reason that I did the shot cam thing is because I had bought that thing prior, um, mainly just to figure out why I was sucking at shooting so bad. I was kind of kind of desperate at that point. I guess that it's like that line from that uh, the movie tin cup paraphernalia for lost and desperate souls and I was tired of sucking. So I had that shot camera and I just so happened to grab that thing as I was walking out the door on that hunt and threw it on. And yeah, it was an experience for sure.
Speaker 3:And then having Presley, my dog, know I had, I had been training her for that 10 day long hunting trip for a year. I'd always wanted a dog at that level, you know, and after after tilly died, I got her and just started working her from eight weeks old and it's been. It was super cool to see her progression. Yeah, the hunting season Not not only what I learned and not how many ducks we killed, but how much that little dog picked up on it it's, it's, it's. There's a lot more to duck hunt. Not this is my first year learning that there's a lot more to duck hunting than just actually killing ducks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty interesting to me that that little dog you've got, which is a Boykin right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, boykin.
Speaker 2:Spaniel the stuff she can do and pick up. I mean geese. Oh, that's unreal that dog's dragging geese all over the place.
Speaker 3:The dog has no quit. I line that dog up and I send her and I say back that dog is going to run in a straight line without looking back at me until she hears a whistle or she dies. I mean that dog's only purpose in life is to go get stuff and bring it back to me. So that's been cool. That's been cool because you know, everybody knew Tilly and Tilly was great. Tilly was the best dog. You know I'll never top that with that dog, but her job is to be my friend, presley's job. Presley's a weapon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you talked about this not too long ago, that Tilly, which was a golden retriever. She wasn't made to hunt, she was made just to be a companion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she had no. When you throw something out in front of her, she gets mad that you just threw it and she's waiting. She's like are you going to go get that? You know why are you still standing there?
Speaker 2:Why'd you throw that over there, which was fine?
Speaker 3:I mean she, that dog was the perfect dog for me at that point in my life. You know that was my dad's dog and and and all the stuff that I went through with that dog. So that you know that's not me, not me saying I would never want a dog like that again. But I told myself with Presley I was like this dog. I want to show up to the boat ramp with this tiny little brown dog that everybody's like. Why do you bring his? Why do you bring his porch poodle with him and then just run laughs around him. And she did that quite a bit this year. She's had a fair share of that so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a dog's pretty impressive, I mean it's. You know, she really don't pay attention to anybody, but you, you know, she's always looking at you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know it's been a learning experience for me too, because it's the first time I've really trained a dog to that, to that level, I mean, we've probably at least got a thousand hours. Um, we went, we played fetch before I ever took her in my house. So you know, I started her from eight weeks old to the day.
Speaker 2:So Was there a reason that you got a Boykin over a traditional dog, I guess?
Speaker 3:No, it was a totally last minute thing. I was looking for goldens and Madison Sharp's parents got a Boykin and her dad was at a shoot and he was showing me pictures of it. I'm like man, what kind of dog is that? And did about five minutes worth of googling and had her call the breeder and save me the last one, really. So it was typical cameron for asking about a five minute decision yeah, well, it worked out for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes it don't work out for you. This time it did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, most of the time it doesn't work out. Uh, this time, yeah, it worked out pretty good. I mean, as soon as I read that they they didn't have near the health issues that golden's did and they weren't subject to a lot of the stuff that you know, basically the stuff that killed Tilly and you know all the medical bills and all that stuff. I didn't want to go through that again with the dogs. So as soon as I read that you know they weren't really going to get any of that, I was like yep, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:So, uh, if anyone wants to listen to this, wants to go watch or see what we're talking about. Cameron's got a pretty good Instagram and some of those videos I was looking the other day some of those videos got over a million views.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't again had no plan on doing that, and you know, I know the typical social media thing is like, well, that's not real life and that's not what they're doing. That is exactly what I'm doing every day and I'm perfectly okay with accepting that. I'm reliving my mid-20s right now doing whatever I want to do and I'm having a blast doing it, and it just kind of took off. Yeah, it just people like bird murder, I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2:How old are you now?
Speaker 3:29. How old are you now? Uh, 29. Uh, getting old, 29. Yeah, yep, I tried to cram it all. I'm trying to cram as much as I can in before 30. Um, which is cool, Cause I didn't think I was going to live till 30.
Speaker 2:So why we're doing pretty good. You didn't think he's going to live till 30. So why we're doing pretty good. You didn't think he's going to live till 30. Dang Some people say I'm not going to live to 65 or 70 or 80 or whatever you said 30. Yeah. I mean, you know, I like to send it, Uh, just yeah, let's talk about a little bit about how you got to where you are.
Speaker 3:You know how? How are you now enjoying life outside the army? Now that you're outside the army, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm having a absolute blast. I mean I'm I'm obviously glad that you know every, every, every good thing, every bad thing. I'm kind of a kind of on that train of it all happens for a reason and I'm sitting in a hotel in wisconsin doing the thing I like to do more than anything, and you know I have absolutely nothing to complain about where I'm at.
Speaker 3:You know, it took me, took me a little bit to figure that out, for sure. I mean, my, my, my mid-20s was a, was a roller coaster ride, for sure, but I had an awesome time. I mean, I've met some of the best people and some of the worst people and I've traveled all over the world and you know, I got to do everything that I wanted to do in that phase of my life. I got to do everything that I wanted to do in that phase of my life and right now, all I'm trying to do is just reset and I don't know what the next phase of my life is going to look like, but the current one isn't so bad. So I'm probably going to keep doing that until somebody tells me otherwise. Yeah, but yeah, I mean I joined the army right out of high school. But Um, but yeah, I mean I joined the army right out of high school, but so so, so you graduated when 18 years old, 17, 18 years old, yeah yeah, I joined when I was 17.
Speaker 3:Um, then I left when I was 18.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you, that's all.
Speaker 3:you really really I mean 2012, really, um, I think, yeah, 2012, and that you know, I I grew up. I grew up as a golfer, um, I grew up racing dirt bikes. I grew up shooting a little bit, but not just, you know, like we talked about last time. I mean, there, you know, I shot a little bit with my dad here and there, but I just never had any interest in it and looking back, I mean that's you know, I try to live my life with zero regrets. Sometimes that, you know, that's good and bad, but one that I'm always going to have is just not pursuing this. When my dad was around but hindsight's, 2020, I probably wouldn't be sitting here at the regional, uh, if I had. So, you know, I my thing was was racing their bikes. After, after he got done with what he wanted to do shooting and stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, let's stop right there for a second. Your dad some people don't know this, but your dad was on team USA a long time ago, Yep, so explain that before we get into the. You know you racing and golfing and all that stuff, Uh, he, he shot a Beretta automatic I think everybody did back then, from what I can remember you telling me, and he made Team USA and I don't know if it was fee task or whatever it was, but that's pretty interesting to me.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, yep, he was, uh, he started, he started shooting in 95. Um, and then I think the first time he made the team, the first time he made the team, it got canceled because of nine 11. So then he made the team again, the fee test team, and it was, uh, it was him, andy W Wendell and Dan, and yeah, and then his agreement with my mom was you know, we're going to be broke until I do what I want to do with this and then I'll quit and move on with life. And that's what he did. His goal was exactly what he did make Team USA. They won the gold medal and um, and that was the end. He never I don't think he ever shot another registered target again. So you know, then it kind of transitioned to. You know, I'm, I'm eight at the time, seven, seven, eight years old, something like that. So that's right around the time he got me into racing, dirt bikes and golf. I was already playing golf.
Speaker 2:I did not.
Speaker 3:I raced GNCCs up until I was 18. I won all kinds of stuff. I was actually good at that. Dirt bikes Yep, I grew up with Aaron Plessinger and aaron plessinger were in the same. I don't for the people who follow, you know motocross and supercross nowadays, but like caleb russell, stew baylor and the gncc side, and then like aaron plessinger and and uh, tomac was a little bit older than us, but like that was the generation I grew up racing with all them dudes and most of them started in g or a lot of them started in the gncc side, which is the cross-country stuff side, and um you know. So, yeah, yeah, it was cool. It was cool to grow up with those guys. Yeah, I was. I was pretty close with with a lot of those guys growing up racing. I mean, we traveled everywhere, just like this Same thing.
Speaker 2:You win anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I want a bunch of stuff. I want to uh, to GNCC titles. I want a bunch of like Virginia. It kind of works like NASCAR, like it's a season long points race, um, and then you know everything in between. Yeah, I want a lot of stuff. Um, I had I want a lot of stuff. Um, I had I had a good time with that. I had a good time with that, but um, surprised you don't bring that up more.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've talked to you a bunch and I've I don't know that I ever knew that about you.
Speaker 3:It's a, it's a weird um, um. When my dad died, you know, I don't I don't know if it's some kind of I don't know if it was some kind of stress response or or what, but kind of the reason I ended up in shooting was because when he died I kind of just my mind just kind of X'd all that out. I didn't think about it for years, um, I really didn't think about it until I was going through all the trophies and stuff, when I was going through his house later on, years later, and you know, my mind just kind of reverted back to shooting. Like I guess all my really really good, like deep-rooted memories with him were shooting, which is probably some type a problem, because you know he stopped shooting when I was nine. But that's just kind of what I latched on, that's just kind of what I used to to get through all that Um, and that's really the only reason I started shooting that and he had all had a barn full of ammo and it was just going bad, so somebody needed to shoot it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember you telling me that you just shooting and shooting and shooting and, yeah, burning through 55 gallon drums full of reloads and I still had a bunch of them.
Speaker 3:But I had a had a controlled burn get out of control at my uh at my farm last year year before burnt down one of my barns and it had a bunch of 55 gallon drums for my dad's old reloads oh, I bet that wasn't nice no, no, they weren't happy about that, so golf yep, you, you do you still play golf?
Speaker 2:or did you play golf? How does?
Speaker 3:I mean I don't see you playing golf at all yeah, so I I had a golf club.
Speaker 3:I mean I'm pretty sure my dad was, uh, taking notes from tiger wood's dad. I mean I had a golf club in my hand when I was in diapers and I was always really good. My dad, from the time I was born until the time he died, was a scratch golfer the whole way through. My dad was very, very good at golf. He, he did a lot of business on the golf course with what he did and, um, you know that was always his thing. So I was always real big into golf.
Speaker 3:I didn't really start taking it seriously until sometime, probably late middle school ish, and I think I just tried out for the golf team because they missed the most days of school, because when you go to a match you're gone for the whole day. So I didn't really start playing golf hard until high school. But I was very successful with that and had a great time with that. But then, you know, joined the Army and then you know my back injury and all that stuff and I got to be real careful. One now, not to throw my back out, but two is because I have a very addictive personality competitive problem, I guess and I was at a Topgolf with Corey a few weeks ago and I knocked, stroked one pretty good and then hit another one pretty good and then I was like I gotta put this down because this is, this is fun and yeah you'll end up buying a set of clubs and I know and I just keep having to tell myself you're too old to be any good, like you there's.
Speaker 3:It's not realistic that I would ever go play on the pga tour. So in my mind it's not realistic that I would ever go play on the PGA tour.
Speaker 2:So in my mind it's not worth starting at all to me, yeah. So if you pick up a golf club, your your goal is going to be to go play on the PGA tour. It's not just going to be to play in a local tournament.
Speaker 3:Yeah pretty much and at this point in my life of the back injury and I'm and these you know these dudes, these you know these do's and plans, since they were in diapers, uh, it's not realistic and I will completely run my entire life into the ground trying to make it realistic.
Speaker 2:And it's just not so. Is that something you, I guess growing up that was kind of bred into you to to never quit, I guess?
Speaker 3:Uh, it's, um, I'm probably an exact I'm going to, I'm, I'm very, very much so like my dad in a lot of ways. Um, you know, when it comes to to addictive personalities, I had a shrink one time tell me that she thought I was slightly autistic and I was like what the hell did you just call me? I mean, I was pissed, I thought she had just thrown an insult. I was about to flip the table over on her. It's just very compulsive. I mean it takes, you know, to. There's a lot of compulsive people in our sport. Absolutely, I mean you have to be compulsive to spend this much money and time on something that makes you no money and takes up a lot of your time. So I think it was just more of that.
Speaker 3:it's just you know once you yeah once you get an interest in something, it's like, okay, I want to beat that, I want to beat that and then do something else. And I've definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely been bad about that. Uh, thus far, I mean I did it with skydiving, that you know, fishing, bow fishing I've been into all kinds of stuff. Um, yeah, shooting. Obviously shooting went way farther um than all of that, but it's just, it's more of a. I think it's more as I've gotten older and kind of understand myself a little bit better. It's just more of a, a compulsive, I guess.
Speaker 2:I don't, I don't you just want to be good at everything you do.
Speaker 3:Maybe it is autism, I have no idea. If it is, it can't be that bad. It it's not. You know, I'm, I'm fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I feel fine. I think yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm in a lot of pain. What did you do to hurt your back? I was Afghanistan in 2015 is when it started and then again continuing on with that compulsive behavior of I want to go to Sapper school, I want to go to airborne school, I want to be a green beret, I want to jump out of planes, I want to do this, I want to carry heavy stuff, and just absolutely zero thought of the consequences of you know the, the after effects of what a lifestyle like that does to your body. I mean not, you know, I have nothing to complain about. I'm not dead and I'm not missing any arms and limbs, um, it just, you know, going like that all the time just beats up your body. I mean, I got like half of one knee left, um, but I've had a great time, so I'm not, I'm not, I'm not complaining about it.
Speaker 2:Don't, don't you have to be that way to do kind of what you did in army, though I mean you have to be one of those.
Speaker 3:I'm going to just go all the way. Yeah, I mean for the, for the overwhelming majority of it, you have to be able to move quickly, uh, run fast and have a high pain tolerance. If you, if you got that down, if you get a high pain tolerance and you know you can just suck it up and just kind of do it, um, you can get through just about the majority of the, the conventional stuff. You start getting into some of the other stuff and you got to think a little bit more, um, but still have a high pain tolerance, um, when your dad passed.
Speaker 2:You know you gotta. You gotta deal with his estate, your active duty, your young I mean. How do you, how do you juggle all that?
Speaker 3:Not very good. Uh, you know, uh there's. It was a learning experience. I mean, I had a very good, friendly friend uh helping me out. I had a lot of, a lot of very good people um helping me out through that. But I lived three hours away. I mean, I was, I was driving all the way up to Virginia two, three nights a week for two years, um, and then being back at PT at six six 30 the next morning. So, um, that's a lot for somebody that young to have to do?
Speaker 2:you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah and uh. You know I I had to. Just I had to grow up quick. I mean my my early twenties, all the way up to 21 in the army, were a racket. That is the most fun. It sucks at the time, uh, and you probably couldn't convince anybody who's in that situation right now that they're going to look back and say that was fun, but it is the most fun I've ever had in my life. I mean being 19 going to Afghanistan and you know, just it's, it's a lot, a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:All right. How many times you said you were in Afghanistan? I mean, how long do you stay there, how many times do you go back, or how do you do that?
Speaker 3:I was there twice, basically a nine-month deployment with a couple months another couple-month trip. Nine months. That's short man. When they were going into Iraq, all the OG gangsters from the GWAT era, those were 18-month deployments.
Speaker 3:Wow Then, looking back farther than that World War II, you just went, you came back when the war was over, when the boat showed back up, just went and you came back when the when the war's over. You know when, the when the boat showed back up, yeah, um, so you know nine months. Looking back at it, it doesn't seem. It seems like I can only remember about a week's worth of it. But um no, it flies by early twenties. For, for, for a young single, you know, 18 year old, is is an army. It's, it's, it's fun, it's, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:What's what's one of the crate? What's like the funniest story, like a funny story? What? What's something funny that's happened to you like that?
Speaker 1:Deployed.
Speaker 2:There's gotta be something funny, like you had to eat something that made you sick or you had to see some guy out there with a goat or something I mean something deployed yeah deployed.
Speaker 3:I got dysentery from eating goats and uh was so dehydrated I didn't even know what dysentery was uh at the time. I do now and, um, I was so dehydrated that I started I was hallucinating and got up to go to the bathroom and uh walked into a nail sticking out of the side of our, our hut. So I got a big old scar on my forehead from sticking a nail basically straight into my skull while I had dysentery. And I finished and I don't know if that's funny. It's funny now looking back. It wasn't funny at the time. Um, I don't know, there's so many, there's too many to count. I mean, you know whether uh oh, I'm, sure I mean.
Speaker 3:I'll think the one uh, yeah, I mean that's yeah, Most of them probably would not be appropriate for for uh, for the show, yeah, For for most audiences, for sure.
Speaker 2:So, being in, being in the army and doing what you're doing, you have to. Like we talked earlier, you have to have you have to be a certain type of person.
Speaker 2:To do that, and and I I would imagine the mental aspect of it you would have to have a strong mental. Strong mental health, I would assume, and a strong mental game, so to speak. You know you can't be weak minded, I'm sure so. Does all that lead, you know, after you're out of the army? Does all that when you're into shooting, does that help you at all? Does that do you ever think? All right, well, this ain't nothing. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And and getting to be away from all that and and now that I've been out, no stress and just focusing on me and, like you know, I'm this year has been it really, since I got out it's been hard, I've been selfish, I mean it's it's, I am focusing on me. You know, I've been a lot more particular about who I let in my life and and who I'm around and who I surround myself with, because, you know, I, I was, yeah, that my mid-20s was a nightmare. I mean, it was not, and I had a lot of fun, I did a lot of cool stuff and I was still. You know, I kind of attribute that to, I guess, the way my dad rubbed off on me a little bit of just like, all right, gotta, gotta keep doing it, gotta keep doing something. So, so that, um, you know that kept me going and I got my, I passed selection, I think I. I think I got selected a year after dad died and I think I graduated the q course, like that same day, two years later, or something like that.
Speaker 3:Um, q course is what like, uh, is that? It's the, the, the, this, it's like college for green berets, it's a special forces qualification course. So it's just, you know, okay, two years of you, learn a language, you learn all kinds of stuff. Yeah, you, you learn a language. Um, I learned french. We talked about that last time. Um, takes a really long time to be a green beret and uh, sorry, I'm just sitting here trying to think of timelines.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean my, my mid-20s. I never, really, I never, stopped to sit down to deal with, uh, what happened with my dad and the ramifications of bad decisions not bad decisions, just the wrong decisions uh, after that. So I was just a pinball, I mean it, you know, did a lot of cool stuff, but I don't really think that, um, I don't really think I ever translated any of the mental stuff. Well, until long after I was out, um, yeah, because at the time, I mean at the time when you're, when you're, when you're getting after it, like that it's's just, it's just go, go, go, go, go, go go, you don't have time to stop, you can't stop Um. But, like I said, I mean my mid twenties.
Speaker 3:I was a wrecking ball, um, I struggled bad, bad, bad, bad with suicide. You know, I, I think, and I don't have any problem talking about that now. You know, I'm sure some people are like well, I probably shouldn't have said that out loud, but you know, I don't have any problem talking about it now because I would love to be able to help people. You know what I'm saying. If somebody hears that and it helps them, I've just gotten comfortable with it. With it, I know where I'm at now and I know I'm good now. But man, when you're on that ride, that's that, that's uh, that's a tough way to live and I struggled with that bad for a long time.
Speaker 2:You know, um yeah just I mean, I don't know why no rhyme or reason.
Speaker 3:I mean I, you know I was, I was healthy and had a great career and there, you know, didn't really have that many problems. But at the same time my, my dad, was rich and he was good at a lot of stuff yeah, you know so, and it didn't do him any good, um, so I'm very, very fortunate, very thankful I able to. I caught that earlier in life, um, but I struggled hard with that man. I mean it was when it came. I mean you remember, I mean you were my friend. Then you know you remember all that. Feel free to give your take of it and just don't tell them everything, but you know, uh, I mean, I you know, and I kind of understood it and I think that's that's you know.
Speaker 2:I've known you. I don't know how long I've known you now, but I've known you a long time and I I kind of understood you know what I'm saying. Like I I've, I've tried to call you. I can remember trying to call you before and like where'd Cameron go? You know, is he? He's not answering the phone, you know.
Speaker 3:And I, you know, and I couldn't figure out why everybody was asking me, uh, if I was okay. I was like what do you think I'm fine? Yeah, um, but you know it, it that I struggled. I struggled hard with that, um, for a long time. And then, you know, and then my next compulsive adventure was skydiving, which couldn't have happened at a worse time, because it's pretty easy to die doing that historically full bore into that and doing stuff that you don't even think about trying and no one will even teach you until you've got 2000 jumps.
Speaker 3:I was trying stupid stuff like that at 150 when it came to, you know, canopy flying. I was flying a canopy. That was way too small. Yeah, I had a lot of fun, yeah, but I should probably be in a wheelchair. All, yeah, I had a lot of fun, yeah, but I should probably be in a wheelchair.
Speaker 3:I don't know how I'm not in a wheelchair, um, but uh, one day I just woke up and I was just like I'm not gonna get. I'm scared for some reason. I don't. I've never felt this before. It feels wrong, but I'm not gonna go jump today. And then the next day I woke up and I was like, no, I'm not gonna go jump today either. And the next thing, you know, I've been six months and I was like ain't no, I'm not going to go jump today either. And the next thing, you know, I've been six months and I was like ain't no way I'm doing that again. Yeah, and it was weird. It was probably the most profound immediate change I've ever experienced in my life. It's just one day. I was just like nope.
Speaker 2:So how many times do you think you jumped out of an airplane for fun? I know you kept up with that.
Speaker 3:With free fall and all the civilian stuff I did, I don't know A few hundred.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always said, well, I'd jump out of a perfectly good airplane, I'd just have to ride and watch. I can't do that, I'd free fall way too fast.
Speaker 3:I think everybody should do it one time in their life. I think got a guy diving done in a the right way, the right progression. Basically, I approached that with the same mentality that I approached shooting is if okay, this lady's telling me I'm in C class, I don't want to be in C class, I want to be in masterclass. With me in masterclass. Well, want to be in c class, I want to be in master class, put me in master class.
Speaker 3:Well, doing that type of progression in skydiving is just, you know how, how deep of a hole are you going to make in the ground? You know you're, you're going to die, you're going to get hurt. Um, yeah, I had a lot of fun, but at the same time I was extremely suicidal. And who cares? You know, I was probably gonna do it anyways, you know. So that's why I was flying like that, that's why I was jumping so much, not to not to kill myself, it's just. I had no fear. No fear when your backup plan is is essentially, you know, killing yourself, right, as terrible as that sounds.
Speaker 2:It stops being scary. I would just assume that if you're at that point, who really cares anyway.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean Exactly. It's not going to phase me to drive 100 miles an hour on the way to work. Little stuff like that. I'm very fortunate, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you got the help you needed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I spent a good bit of time, the last part of my career, in a program called Intrepid Spirit, which is a PBI clinic, like a brain health thing MRIs of your brain and found out I had bad sleep apnea, got you on a CPAP I did a bunch of work with. I was having real bad migraines. They couldn't figure out what was causing them, so I did a bunch of work with a neuro optometrist, which is like I had. There were times where I had colo, dr colo and my neuro optometrist on the phone together trying to figure out why I couldn't keep my eye on a bird at 40 yards and I was getting headaches after a shot, you know. So that was pretty cool, um, and then, obviously, you know it's, it's full spectrum and I got help from my back. Um, you know, I was able to talk to people. It's a. It's a fantastic, fantastic, fantastic program. Um, well, good.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's kinda. That's kinda where I where I ended up. Um, just I knew I was getting out and I was med boarding.
Speaker 2:So do you consider yourself retired? I mean, what do you consider yourself?
Speaker 3:Funded homeless. Funded homelessness. No, I'm not retired because I didn't do 20 years. I mean, there's medical retirement. So I guess essentially that's what it is, medical retirement, and that's how I got out.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so now, you're shooting all this out, whether if it's flying clays or flying birds or whatever it is. I remember I remember you used to talk a lot about bear hunting and stuff like that, up and from where you're from. What are you still doing that stuff?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean I've still got a ton of bear. I mean I'm really all I'm doing now is shooting. I'm traveling, I have shot I think 7,000 targets in competition already this year. I mean I have shot everything and I'm traveling and teaching. I don't really have time to bear hunt down there anymore and it's just so expensive to get them come out during the day. You've got to start feeding them six months in advance. So I don't you know, to get them come out during the day, you got to start feeding them six months in advance. So I don't you know, if one walks out in front of me, I'll shoot him, but I'm not gonna. I don't have time for that and it's during duck season and until something drastic changes in my life, uh, I'm gonna do exactly what I did last year, every year, because that was a trip of a lifetime. Um, I'm just going to keep doing it.
Speaker 2:So so this this is actually the longest of we've been talking I don't know a long time If you look down at your timer on your podcast episode there of getting to know somebody. I don't know that I've ever done that without really talking about shooting sporting clays. You know what I mean. So so you've always been a good shooter, right? I remember when I met you at the Meadows years back I don't know what class you were in, but I can remember you were a good shooter and now you're still a good shooter and you're actually up at the top. I mean, talk about your practice regimen a little bit, how you got there. I remember talking to you a long time ago and you you'd go out and shoot constantly by yourself for hours.
Speaker 3:Back then I was shooting you know a hundred thousand shells a year. Um, you know, as that whole pinball machine that was my twenties rolled on and just you know, shooting, whether I knew it or not, just kind of fell on the back burner a little bit, you know, I started skydiving and and it just that was more exciting to me, that was doing it for me. I wasn't getting the you know the dopamine from from shooting anymore and it was causing problems. So I wasn't causing problems, I just wasn't shooting that good. And then, you know, trying to chase problems that weren't there by switching guns and switching stuff, and then you know, on top of all that just not practicing, and just, you know, wasn't mad at him, um, yeah, so then I got out of the army and just started shooting again and I was like this year I'm going to give it at least two years where I put as much effort as I was in the beginning into it. We'll see what happens, because I'm not going to keep wasting my time and money if I'm just going to be, you know, mediocre and just be mad driving home from every shoot that I go to. So I was like, yeah, I want to completely relearn the game of shooting a shotgun All together. So, corey, you know Corey's my best friend and I talk to Corey every day and Corey has been, you know, just a huge blessing. Corey and his family have been a huge blessing um, for a couple of years now, but especially since I've gotten out of the army, you know, and they're, they're such good people. So I'm always you know, corey, I've learned so much about shooting from Corey and Corey's actually the one who I bounced it off of.
Speaker 3:I was like, hey, man, I think I'm going to go about shooting from Corey and Corey's actually the one who I bounced it off of. I was like, hey, man, I think I'm going to go see Wendell and he was like, do it Immediately, do it. I'm like, okay, cool. So I went and did it and that is just mind-blowing. That's like taking the red pill and the matrix on some of the stuff, because it's a little different and it was very different for me. So then just kind of took all that and was just like you know, I'm gonna get rid of any ego from it and just I just want to learn as much as I can about the game this year and I've already quadrupled anything that I thought I knew you know just from.
Speaker 3:I think my game now is just such a big combination. I mean I want to move the gun like Corey. You know I want to. There's a lot of things I'm doing very similar, very similar to what Wendell taught me Pretty I'm shooting very different in that regard. I want to be aggressive like Greg Wolf. I want to be able to point a gun like Greg Wolf.
Speaker 3:I've worked a bunch with Zach. The biggest things I've learned from Zach I've learned a lot about shooting from Zach, but the biggest things I've learned from Zach is there's nobody that knows the life, uh, the lifestyle side of it, like Zach does. Like this is his life. He shoots more than anybody else. I mean he, he knows the ins and outs of competing and he knows the ins and outs of the different parts of the coming. There's nothing that he hasn't seen. Um, I mean there's nothing that he hasn't seen. So I've learned a ton in that category from him.
Speaker 3:I've learned a tremendous amount from Wendell and the way that I'm seeing the target now. So basically, I just took everything I thought I knew and threw it out the window. I was like I'm going to reteach myself how to shoot and anything that doesn't help me see the bird better. I'm going to get rid of it, which for me was overly excessive gun barrel movement being way buried into the gun, looking out through the top of my prescription glasses being all hunched over I mean it's just looking back at it now I'm like no wonder I was in so much pain at the end of every round. So I changed all of it, all of it.
Speaker 2:I didn't know you went to Wendell.
Speaker 3:I don't think I knew that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I sure did. And Wendell's got some stuff figured out. I will say that much without giving all away. I'm not going to give away his trade secrets for free. I can go pay him for that. But I think my opinion and again opinions, you know, I think they're like assholes Everybody's got one and they all stink or whatever that. However that saying goes, this is 100% my opinion. I'll stink, or whatever that. However that saying goes, this is a hundred percent my opinion.
Speaker 3:Uh, I think Wendell Wendell's way of seeing the bird I think he's the only. I think he's got it figured out. Uh, I think I think the way that he sees the bird just nothing, nothing other than the visual side of the way he sees the bird and the way he matches up his fundamentals to make that happen better at the end of the way he sees the bird and the way he matches up his fundamentals to make that happen better at the end of the shot. Uh, it's working for me. Uh, very well, um, I think I went.
Speaker 3:What I was running into is, the more I was learning about the game, the worse I was getting and I was like well, I know how to shoot all of it. You know I've all of these things, but I'm not a master of any of them. I didn't have a big dumb hammer To me. My big dumb hammer needs to be matching the speed of the bird from in front of the bird, trusting it enough to keep the barrel in front of the bird and pulling the trigger when I see it. Good, that is my big dumb hammer.
Speaker 3:So, are you?
Speaker 2:saying you shoot like maintain basically.
Speaker 3:It's not really that kind of plays into, kind of the way that I kind of restructured my thinking of the game is, rather than looking at it from a perspective of I'm gonna go try to break 100 birds with a move yeah, with a singular move, or any move or a combination of moves you know, to me that's like, for me that was like having a having a toolbox with nothing but a bunch of screwdrivers in it. You know, I didn't have. I'd gotten farther away from how I learned how to shoot, which was match the speed of the bird from in front of the bird. So you see it good, then shoot it right. That's like basic. I mean, obviously it gets way. You know way more in depth than that, but I had gotten away from that with trying to put moves on birds and trying to just do all this, all this stuff. That uh was hurting me because I knew a little bit about a lot and and I didn't I didn't have that big dumb hammer. So this year's been just I want my big dumb hammer to be really good and I'm going to do it all the time. I've had some of the best rounds of my life. This year I've had some of the worst rounds of my life this year.
Speaker 3:It has definitely been a huge, huge, huge learning curve in how to shoot in a different mindset. I've worked on my mindset, I've worked on all that stuff. I've probably bounced around all over the place, I mean the biggest thing probably being my mindset and just being relaxed. I don't, I'm not very good at that, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not a very relaxed person. Um, so learning to shoot, like that has been, has been totally different. Um, you know, but there there's there's a lot of mixes in there. Um, I kind of wish we could go back and restart the shooting thing, because I'm just rambling all over the place now.
Speaker 3:But basically I took everything in my game that I could not repeat the same exact way three times in a row and not got rid of it, but set it to the side and just focused on I call it, you know, my big dumb hammer, what I want to do when I'm stressed out, what I want to do when I don't know what to do, what I want to do when I'm nervous, what I want to do under pressure just my big dumb hammer. And I just focused entirely on my big dumb hammer all year and I've done the majority of that on a skeet field. I kind of made myself a rule in the beginning of the season that I wasn't going to change anything fundamentally mechanics-wise the way I'm turning my body or any of that. I wasn't going to change any of that unless it was on a skeet field. I've probably shot 10,000 shells on a skeet field this year and maybe 1,000 sporting clays. So you think, the skeet field this year and maybe a thousand sporting clays.
Speaker 2:So you think the skeet field helps you.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, I love skeet, I kind of like it myself, if it wasn't for the game, I would shoot it all the time.
Speaker 3:I wish we had international skeet, but I don't like the, I don't like the competition side of skeet. You know perfection, par is a hundred. Yeah, I ski. You know perfection, par is 100, yeah, I agree. So, um, that's not very fun to me, so, uh, but shooting it I do enjoy shooting it. Um, I really like international ski, but I'm not any good at that. I don't think anybody who doesn't shoot that all the time is any good at that yeah, so you've.
Speaker 2:Basically, when you want to practice, you go to a ski field yeah, yeah, so I, I'm teaching.
Speaker 3:I've been teaching a bunch outside of charleston, um, at a club outside of charleston and, and you know I've really been having a good time there I'm setting the targets, um. So the majority of my practicing has been done there. Because I'm down there so much, I do still shoot at my range. I've shot at my range quite a bit in the last couple weeks. I don't use it nearly as much as I used to. I've got three clubs that I'm pretty much teaching at. Most of the time I'll do the occasional lesson at my place. For the most part I'm pretty much teaching at most of the time and I'll do the occasional lesson at my place, but for the most part I just I'm never home long enough to keep targets in the machines. But this week, you know, I was like I was very, very, very had a ton of confidence coming out of the World English because I just you, I, I just you know I tanked the first day, made an adjustment and shot the last two days like a psychopath and it was awesome and that must. That's probably what Brandon feels like all the time, cause it's, you know, he's. The amount of aggression that that dude can shoot with is insane. I mean you know I 100% giving that Like it is cool. So you know I shot the last two days of that tournament aggressive, like I need to be shooting, and it worked out really well. So I had a ton of confidence from that.
Speaker 3:So I went home and just started practicing. I mean I shot two, three times a day for the last five or six days because, pretty much because the fish weren't biting, and, do you think, got back to basics. I got on my lawnmower. I was out there and about to start mowing my grass and I used to. I mean, probably last time we talked, I mean I would I would shoot at that, my place, every single day, no matter what under the lights, and I'd pick up every single target that didn't break and put them back in the machines, just like I had to do with my dad when I was a kid and, um, I hadn't done that in a really long time and I was in my lawnmower looking around.
Speaker 3:I was like, well, you know, we're we're focusing on getting back to basics this week, so I might as well start with that. So I got off the lawnmower, I picked up targets for an hour and a half and then mowed my grass and then shot some more and kind of. You know, kind of getting back to yeah, getting back to the, the hunger that I had for it, you know five years ago or five years ago.
Speaker 2:You think you have that now.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I think I've. I didn't know anything back then. Like I said, I've learned more this year from Corey and Zach and I've been shooting with Craig Wolf a ton. That is, if you haven't had the opportunity to now, don't go blow up his score, chaser and stuff, because you know I don't. I don't want to bother him, but he's pretty much never had the opportunity to shoot shotgun with Greg Wolf.
Speaker 3:It is. It is an experience. Um, to me, he's the most talented shooter on the planet. I'm his biggest fan. Like so, to me he's the most talented shooter on the planet. I'm his biggest fan, so I love shooting with Greg. And for everybody that doesn't know, greg's a world champion. Just throwing that out there for the people that don't know.
Speaker 2:I think he's one of the first ones, too Americans.
Speaker 3:One of the first ones. The first one, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3:And I think he's still the youngest. I think I don't know You'll youngest, I think I don't know you have to ask him, but um, so you know, just just surrounding myself with, with people I want to learn from this year. Well, it's like it's not with anybody.
Speaker 2:Cameron, I mean you. You want to surround yourself with who you want to be. I mean, so to speak. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:You don't want to hang out with much drug addicts if you want to be successful I've even shot with, uh, I've even shot with kevin about Me and Kevin are in the same duck lease this year. I mean I've, I've, I've picked up stuff from Kevin shocker. Uh, no, but we shot together in Florida and that we, we had a real good time and we duck hunting some last year.
Speaker 2:You're in the same duck lease with Kevin.
Speaker 3:I sure am.
Speaker 2:Well, there will not be any ducks left when y'all are finished? No, there won't be any.
Speaker 3:You'll have to move and I'm excited to be in a lease like that, because the one lease that I'm in it's real duck hunters. So real duck hunters want to see the decoys work. You know they want to. They want birds to land. They have no problem shooting them on the water. I don't like that. Uh, I, I, I, I want to shoot. So Kevin's club is a little bit more tailored to that. Um, I think so. So that'll be fun. But you know, corey, when we ducked on in Texas the first day we went out there, I put my bag in the boat, picked his bag up and I'm like Corey, what do you have in here, man? I'd be. You know it weighs 25, 30 up. And I'm like cory, what do you have in here, man I'd be. You know it weighs 25, 30 pounds and he's like a whole flat of shells and duck hunting with cory cruz is a racket, um good or bad he gets, he gets bored easy.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna, that's all I'm gonna say, without, uh, without putting any of us in jeopardy, with mr Green Jeans, corey likes to shoot Anything, dragonflies I mean. We probably polished off a flat and a half and maybe three duck hunting trips, chichi birds I don't know what a chichi bird is, but everything. Don't ever plan on getting a duck mounted with him, because we, we went on this hunt. I killed a, uh kill my first pintail on that hunt and I shoot that pintail and he's clearly dead. He's, he's dead, he's done, he's, he's going down. It's gonna be easy to get him. Dogs ready, they ready, there, waiting. Well, here comes Corey unloading his gun and on the ShotKam video you could see this duck get pushed back three feet every time he hit it on the way down.
Speaker 2:He wanted to make sure he did so Corey does not stop shooting.
Speaker 3:Corey does not stop shooting until the duck is on the water or he's out of shells, which is good you don't lose many ducks. It's just not good for your taxidermy collection.
Speaker 2:No, that's funny.
Speaker 3:Or your shell bell or anything like that. Yeah, but now we circle back to the duck hunting thing.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you're having fun, though.
Speaker 3:I'm having a great time.
Speaker 2:What do you want to do in shooting?
Speaker 1:What do you want to accomplish in shooting? Since you're having fun, though, I mean, that's all that matters. I'm having a great time. I mean, what do you want to do in shooting?
Speaker 2:What do you want to accomplish in shooting? Since you're now back on it, what do you want to accomplish? Don't say world champion. Everybody wants to be a world champion, I'm talking about. What do you want to accomplish?
Speaker 3:The first thing I'm going to do is probably end up moving to Texas just because I want to experience. It won't be full time and I obviously keep my place in North Carolina, but I want to experience that side of the shooting a little bit more. You know their fun shoots down there 200 people. So I'm going to start with that. Um, I don't really know. Be totally honest with you, I, I, I think my main goal right now is to just be as angry at them as I possibly can. Yeah, I, just I want to be able to go out and put together two rounds where I shot every single target Like I hated it and like it was shooting back, and if I didn't see it, you know that's, that's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you will kill it, or?
Speaker 3:kill it or be killed so this is.
Speaker 2:This is what you want to do for I mean for work, for everything. You want to be in some sort of part of the shooting sports, whether it be coaching or shooting. That for everything. You want to be in the some sort of part of the shooting sports, whether it be coaching or shooting. That's all you want to do I have no idea.
Speaker 3:Uh, and it feels great. I mean I was so career driven through my twenties and and now I'm in this weird. I mean I'm still in my twenties, I was so career driven you know for so long, and now I'm just in this spot where it don't matter.
Speaker 3:You know I'm doing fine. I I'm really. I guess the plan right now is to just keep doing what I'm doing until I either get tired of it or run out of money. I guess I don't know. Um, I'm having, I'm having a blast. I can't wrap my head around how I'm having this much fun and it's okay.
Speaker 2:So are you the happiest you've been in a long time? It sounds like.
Speaker 3:Oh man, that's just, it's yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Life, life gets, life gets tremendously better. Uh, when you, you know having fun, just kind of pay a little bit more attention to who you surround yourself with, and you, you, you know having fun, just kind of pay a little bit more attention to who you surround yourself with, and you, you, you get rid of the stress and you, once you come to realize that if no one's no one's dying, no one's going to die, the problem's not really that much of a problem. Um, yeah, I don't know, just yeah, I mean I'm problem. Um, yeah, I don't know, just yeah, I mean I'm just, I'm a lot more relaxed.
Speaker 3:I mean, it took me really honestly, it took me a really long time to to get a handle on my mental health. I mean, it was, it was doing wonders for me in one side of my life, but it was. You was killing me on the other side. Well, just think when you end up getting you can't do nothing about it. I'm very, very, very, extremely blessed to be where I'm at right now. I'm just going to keep doing this until somebody says otherwise, I guess, or the world ends. I've been sitting here watching the news with the subtitles on the whole time and it looks like that might beat me to it, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's pretty bad. Who knows what's going to happen there. That's a fact.
Speaker 3:I just read not to tell you that I've been reading the news while we've been doing this podcast but I just read where our government has stopped sending aid and munitions and guns to Israel and I'm just like man. The Bible wrote about this. There's quite a few places it's written down that this you know, you should probably help them out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a bad day when they, when everybody stops helping them out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, it's a whole book of revelation about it. And uh, and here we are on Fox news talking about not sending them weapons. It's weird how that stuff plays out. It's kind of interesting to just watch it.
Speaker 2:I mean, it makes you think. You know what I mean. I mean, who knows? It's sad. You know, you said earlier I've said this a hundred times myself you can't worry about the things you don't have control over. And what are you going to do about it? You know nothing. I mean you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 3:And that's. That's not me being like, you know, being not patriotic. And I love my country just as much, not more, than anybody else. You know that's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Regardless, but regardless. But it's kind of naive to not accept the fact that there's not a whole lot that you're going to do to to change that. It takes a lot of people, obviously, and I understand you know it takes one person, starts with one person and all that. But we're way past that. We're way past that. We're in survival mode at this point, unfortunately, and hopefully it turns around, but I think it's about to get pretty, pretty western all right, so let's.
Speaker 2:I've never done this before. I'm gonna ask you some. I'm gonna ask you a few questions and you, I have no idea what I'm gonna ask you what what's your favorite movie? 10 cup. Next question favorite what's your favorite kind of you?
Speaker 3:ever seen a movie with kevin costner.
Speaker 2:I have, but I don't. It's been a long time ago you gotta watch it.
Speaker 3:That that's. That's when I watched that. I'm glad that I didn't see that earlier in life. And a good friend of mine was like you need to watch this movie because that's you. I was like this movie was made for me, although it was made before I was born. But but that's me, no, I like that. Yeah, that's my favorite movie.
Speaker 2:Favorite kind of music or favorite song or whatever.
Speaker 3:That's a hard one. I'm all over the place with that. I'm definitely more of a classic rock guy but I have been known to get down to Elvis or the Bee Gees. I even like Elton John dude. I was listening to Elton John today. I listened to Elton John Saturday nights. All right For fighting was was was going through my head the whole time when I had those two good round the second two days that I shot pretty well at the world. World sporting, that's all that was playing Elton John in my little car, perfectly fitting alright, let's do one more of your favorite food probably oysters.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say pizza or chicken no oysters or frog legs. I like frog legs a lot you like putting the salt on them and watch them jump around.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I was never the one cooking them, but I ate them a lot as a kid. I still eat them sometimes. I don't know, I'm not really a picky eater. That's probably why I've stayed pretty thin. I am getting pretty out of shape. You need to get a haircut. I'm actually looking in the mirror right now in my hotel room and thinking that I'm starting to kind of look like uh, like a girl with a beard my my hair. I mounted my gun today and my hair got stuck in between my stock and my shoulder. That's where I'm going to draw the line.
Speaker 2:I'm going to get it chopped off when I get back not not crazy, but I'm going to get it trimmed well, I think that anybody that listens to this whole podcast here I know this is a longer one, but I know that if anyone has seen you at a shoot or if anyone's seen your name on the results, you shouldn't have any problem now knowing a little bit about Cameron. I think he's a pretty interesting guy and I've always told you that You've done a lot of things that I have a lot of questions about, but I just I'm not going to ask you about them, I just you know, it's just, it is what it is, and I think that I think what you've done is is really impressive. You know, from really the start, I learned a lot today, but what you've done, from start to finish or to where you're at now, is, uh, is pretty impressive. I'm actually proud of you.
Speaker 2:So you know, I'm glad you're glad you're doing good yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'm sure, uh, you know, you and probably everybody else is hoping for a lot more stories about the army and stuff. And I I'm not by any means, any way, shape or form. I can't stand people who claim to be something they're not. I, I, I can't stand that. I was a green beret. I did some cool stuff in the army, but I have friends that have done some some the real cool stuff, right like I.
Speaker 3:I just scratched the surface just a little bit you were just there, so to speak, and they've yeah, I'll get you some old school g watt sf guys to have on your podcast for just and y'all can. Y'all can have at it, because those were the dudes you know my whole career I spent. I remember when I was a little kid watching us in Afghanistan and Iraq on the TV. I was like I want to go I'm in second grade but I want to go Then join the Army, get to go to Afghanistan in the latter part, the very latter part of the good years where it was still kind of Western.
Speaker 2:Can't be Western anymore.
Speaker 3:No, it stopped right after that. So then you know, you chase the next thing up a little bit higher to cut, to try to keep getting those, uh, those missions. You know those, those trips and that experience. And then you know it, just it just gets to a point where now you know, now we're not in Afghanistan anymore, I think a bunch of countries have kicked us out of Africa, like we're. You know, I think some real bad stuff happened. But all that stuff, that GWAT era, you know, remember 9-11 as a kid is kind of the military I wanted to be in and that's over now and that's fine, that's a good thing, don't?
Speaker 2:have a stupid thing. It's not all about that, though. You know what I'm saying. Like you telling the story, it's not all about what you did in the military. It's. To me, what's impressive is that you did it. You know, and I've always told you that I think it's for people that are like me that have never been in the military, it's really cool to know someone that's been there, not to Afghanistan, but been to where you were in the military.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying, and that's yeah, yeah, and I'm sure you know I definitely take a lot of the cool experiences that I had in the military for granted. Um, you know, like the, the skydiving and the halo stuff when I was in the free fall team and and and you know all that stuff. Like, I definitely take that for granted because that's, that's an awesome story. I, that's an awesome story. I'm just not. I'm just in a phase in my life right now where I'm trying to figure out what the next one's going to be. Yeah, and I've kind of just I've moved, I've trying to move on from all that, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't really know how to do it. Uh, it hasn't been as bad as I thought. It's been tough. I mean there's, you know, there's plenty of days where I really, really miss it.
Speaker 2:Um, so then I just find something else to do, like go fishing, um, but uh, you know, just like the kind of like the, the different guns you got to shoot, you know that's, that's cool, oh.
Speaker 3:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that people can't just go shoot those guns, I mean, you know. So that kind of stuff, my first day.
Speaker 3:Okay, here's your funny story. To wrap it up my first day on an ODA, my first day on a Special Forces team, was the day after Corey Hold on, let me get my time. Uh, corey, hold on, let me get my timelines. It was after a big shoot at Northbrook. It might've been the one Corey won. I don't know if it was the one Corey won, it might've been before that, I don't know. Anyways, it was a big shoot at Northbrook. So I had gone and I had to drive 13 hours back on that Sunday and be at work at seven o'clock in the morning on Monday to sign into my first ODA.
Speaker 3:So we go to the range and we're at range 44 shooting you know heavy. That's where we shoot all the heavy stuff. You know AT-4s, mortars, miniguns, all that stuff. And I'm shooting an AT-4. I can't remember if it was a Carl Gustav or an AT-4. It was a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. Basically, they don't kick like a shotgun kicks, they kick the other way and the triggers are pretty substantial. I mean, you guys flees it and I had been shooting a two-and-a-half-pound Kregoff trigger all weekend. And I get back and I've never shot one before and I had been shooting a two-and-a-half-pound Kregoff trigger all weekend and I get back and I never shot one before and I also didn't want to tell anyone that I had never shot one before, even though it was perfectly normal.
Speaker 3:I mean, only a pool pass could get that type of stuff. So I shot an AT-4. I never shot a Carl G. That's what it was. It was a Carl G and anyways, I anticipated the recoil and flinch and shot that sucker right to the ground about probably 25 to 30 yards in front of me, over the burn, and there's 60 other people out there shooting. I mean, there's a large crowd. I had quite the large audience and I smoked a bush at about 30 yards with a Carl G and there was dust everywhere and everything stopped and I'm like I didn't do that. That was quick, that was quick and, uh, you know, I got hey, he's pretty good for that one for a long time and it was a long time before I even I did not go out of my way to shoot one of those a second time. I knew it was fun, I just wanted to do it in private.
Speaker 3:No one's going to let you shoot a rocket launcher in private.
Speaker 1:That's what that is is a rocket launcher.
Speaker 3:It sets off all the car alarms within a quarter of a mile. I shot that sucker into the ground. Then the Bravo on the team was like. He was like what did he say? He said I always find the arm and feet, the arm and distance. It's got to spin a certain number of times to arm itself before you know. So if you shoot a brick wall in front of you, hypothetically it shouldn't go off. I wouldn't want to test it. So he was saying the arm and distance was like 100 yards or something like that. And I was like that don't sound right. So I pulled out the manual, looked up 30 feet. If a Carl G round hits within 30 feet of you, there's not gonna be, there's not gonna be much left to identify you by. So that didn't put my mind at ease. I wasn't 30 feet, I was about 30 yards. So I got lucky, but dust everywhere. So yeah, that's probably one of my funniest.
Speaker 2:Funny, but not so funny at this, you know funny that I can.
Speaker 3:I can talk about, you know, yeah, yeah, Other other steps, like over a beer conversation or something like that, probably stuff we've already talked about. They're real funny.
Speaker 2:Well, cameron. Thanks man, I appreciate your time. I know you're. You're in your hotel room. You probably want to get to go into eat or something.
Speaker 3:but uh, I appreciate you telling your story and uh if if anyone's made it this far, that you crap out whatever you don't want. I'm about to go find a waffle house and, uh, get ready to shoot tomorrow.
Speaker 2:So well, good luck shooting. And uh, I'll see you. I'll be at the us open, I know you'll be there. And uh, we'll catch up there and uh, we'll get us something to eat all right, buddy, sounds good.
Speaker 3:All right, we'll see you. It ain't me, I ain't no military soldier, it ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no watchin' it all. It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no watchin' it all. It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no watchin' it all.
