Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED
We live in a world today where everyone feels like they need to tip-toe around people’s feelings and try to be politically correct. You can’t joke or say what’s on your mind if it means it’s going to offend someone you’re around. Politics, religion, off-color humor, or anything of the sort is something you have to avoid talking about or it seems like you get given a lecture by someone pretending to have higher moral values than you. It’s like people are trying to find new ways to get their feelings hurt; and Andy Shaver and Jeff Stanfield, hosts of the Big Honker Podcast, do not give a shit!
“I think that’s what makes us so popular,” says Shaver, co-host of the Big Honker Podcast, “I mean, all these other podcasts out there are trying to be PC and family-friendly, and that’s great if that’s their thing, but I want to talk with our guests like I’m in the blind with them,” he says. Andy is a guide for one of the nation’s top hunting guide services down in Texas, Stanfield Hunting Outfitters, and he, with the help of his step-father Jeff Stanfield runs what has become one of the biggest waterfowl hunting podcasts out there- The Big Honker Podcast.
When asked about the inspiration to start a podcast, Andy said “I went on to Apple Music and looked up ‘waterfowl podcasts’ and only two showed up. One hadn’t uploaded an episode in like 3 years, and the other was really inconsistent, so I went to Jeff and was like ‘hey, we should try this’ and he was all over the idea, so I watched some YouTube videos and we got things squared away to start making a podcast.” Andy talked about guys like Howard Stern and Joe Rogan, and their ability to get everyone talking about not only their guest’s given topics, but their everyday lives and the “behind-the-scenes” looks that go on in their fields of work. “I want to talk to these guys like I’m out in the blind with them, or like I’m at the dinner table with them. I’ve been a guide long enough to know that when you get guys talking, they open up about what’s going on and they open up about how they feel about certain topics, and that’s what I like. I want to have a conversation with these guys that will just allow me to have a fun, entertaining conversation. I hate it when people are fake. When people come on our podcast, I want them to be genuine, not just some fake fucker. That isn’t fun for anybody.”
From Andy Shaver, a photo of the FIRST Big Honker Podcast outline. Andy would tell you this was the first and only time they podcasted with an outline.
The Big Honker Podcast doesn’t cover only waterfowl, though. They’ve had episodes involving treasure hunters, infamous poachers, the guides at the lodge and their hot takes for the upcoming football games and so much more. “That’s what people talk about,” says Shaver, “after we started doing this Jeff was like ‘hey we should release two of these a week’ then he was like ‘let’s do three a week’, and after, like, our 40th episode, I had no idea how I was going to keep talking about waterfowl hunting ideas. So we started branching out and getting into the things that we talked about with our clients in the field.” Shaver and Stanfield make for a hilarious duo, bantering back and forth about certain topics, offering some solid hunting advice, and bringing the feel of the goose blind to your pick-up, office, or wherever it is you decide to listen. However if you’re listening in public, you might want to have ear-buds, or turn the volume down. That “E” is there for a reason. Jeff, Andy, and their guests tell it like it is. No candy coating, no bullshit, just their opinions, their thoughts, and screw whoever that might offend. “I get messages all the time from people who disagree with something we said or someone we did an interview with, and that actually tells me what we’re doing is working. It means we’re getting people talking and getting people engaged with the show” Andy says.
The Big Honker Podcast is about waterfowl, but goes way beyond just ducks and geese. They have guests of all sorts on, including the great Coyote hunter and Wildlife Photographer, Wyman Meinzer (pictured here, middle). Photo courtesy of Andy Shaver.
By the time you read this, odds are The Big Honker Podcast will have gotten its 1,000,000th download. A long way away from the 38 it got the day it came out on April 7, 2018. Soldiers in the Middle-East, folks in Europe, even people from Iceland have found themselves listening to the podcast. When asked if he expected it to get this big, Andy responded, “Yeah, I did. I mean I don’t want to sound cocky, but I knew if we could find the right stuff to talk about and keep it interesting, we’d get there”. Between having a Facebook group dedicated to those who listen to the podcast with over 2,000 members, to those who are finding their way to listening to podcasts every day, the numbers are climbing. A hard task to do in such a relatively small world of that of waterfowl hunters, but the uniqueness of the show, and the refreshingly real-life takes seems to keep drawing people back for another listen. “There’s a guy out there with the last name Rinella, we’re gunning for him,” says Shaver.
Undoubtedly, you can expect that having such a big podcast has created a positive influx of business to Stanfield Hunting Outfitters. “Most of our clients used to be local guys or people from around the state, but now we get people from all over the country, or even from different countries, and we’re like, ‘how’d you hear about us?’ they always say it was by listening to the podcast,” Andy says. Luckily for Stanfield Hunting Outfitters, they have the ability to keep up with the growing clientele with their amazing line-up of guides, that seem to always be killing piles of birds. From Andy himself to Josh Stoner, to Blake Poppe, to everyone else on the staff down at the lodge, you can rest assured that it’s not just a good podcast being run down in Knox City.
If you haven’t yet had the chance to listen to The Big Honker Podcast, you can find it Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, or wherever major podcasts are available. If you haven’t yet booked your hunt with Stanfield Hunting Outfitters you can do that through the Splitreed website, or you can visit Stanfieldhunting.com and book your hunt with Andy, Jeff, and the crew down at the Big Honker Lodge today!
