Zink Calls Z-Unit™ Staff
Dusty Townsend
I am 32 years old and from Carney Oklahoma, which lies in the central part of Oklahoma. I am engaged to Leah Flatt, the love of my life. She has two great kids Brandon which is 15 and Mason that is 7. Both boys have the love of the outdoors and its really great teaching them ethics and the responsibilities that come along with hunting.
I was raised in the country and still live in the country. So growing up, my brothers and me were in the woods or on the pond banks all the time. Ever since I can remember my Dad has had me in the woods hunting something. He has taught me to have great respect for the wildlife and the firearms I use. Right when I got out of High School I went straight to work for my Dad at his glass shop in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I have been working for him ever since. We work 5 days a week so that pretty much makes me a weekend warrior, but since it is my Dad's shop I have some leeway on my days off. I have two brothers, Jesse that is 28 years old and married and Chance that is 22 and going to OSU. Jesse is pretty much my right hand when we go hunting. I hunt with a few other guys but there is nothing like hunting with my brothers. I have hunted with them all my life and always will. The New Year usually has me still goose hunting until Feb. 15 then comes April 6, and turkey season opens. That is one season that is huge with my family. My Dad, uncle, two brothers, cousin, and I are die hard turkey hunters. My two brothers and I usually go up to Kansas after the Oklahoma season is over and try to kill a few more birds. Then dove season, deer season, early teal, and early goose season. So pretty much if it flies, walks, or craws we are going to hunt it.
My brothers and I started waterfowl hunting really hard in 2001. We have always pond jumped ducks, but never used decoys and called until 2001. When we jumped into the sport Fred Zink started coming out with new, better equipment and the whole industry started to blow up with new videos on all the aspects of waterfowl hunting. It wasn't long and we were hooked for life. I recently bought a 6x14 foot box trailer just to hall all of my decoys. Three years ago I decided to start calling in a few goose calling contest and had some success. The first contest I called in was in Claremore, Oklahoma, and I took first place. Then about a month later I went to Tulsa and took fourth. The last two years I have traveled to CabelaŐs in Kansas City to call in their contest. This year there was 22 callers the first day and I placed seventh. I have done decent in a few contests, but I work on my calling routine every day. I started off blowing Tim Grounds calls, but after my brother bought a LM-1 we have went head over hills into Zink Calls. I now blow a MM in contest. We love not only the calls them selves, but also the philosophy of the Zink crew. I love how you guys like to get the geese and ducks close and also how much time and effort you put into the sport of waterfowl hunting. I have hunted a lot of different animals in my life, but there is nothing like water fowling. Before I fell in love with waterfowl hunting I was a die hard deer hunter, but in the last couple of years I have found myself hanging up the bow and grabbing my shot gun. I especially fell in love with goose hunting, I still love hunting ducks, but there is nothing like a big flock of honkers lighting in the decoys. It is an unbelievable feeling when you do all the work to get the geese down and they do exactly what you want them to do. We hunt mostly in Oklahoma all over the state any where we can find the waterfowl. We also go to central Kansas on occasion if the waterfowl hunting is slow here. This last year I had the opportunity to get to take a couple of new guys goose hunting that had never been before, after the first group we lit in the decoys, they were hooked. One of the guys went home that night and ordered a LM-1. I love that feeling of bringing someone waterfowl hunting for the first time.
About 5 years ago I started a group called the Fowl Fanatics. We bought cameras and all the gear to start our own videoing crew. We found out real quick that videoing turkeys and waterfowl isn't as easy at it looked. But after hard work and a lot of trial and error our videoing skills have came a long ways but we still have a long ways to go. Hunting with FredŐs crew last season which was on "The Band Hunters 3 - The Perfect Storm" we really learned a lot more. We have had a ton of fun so far with the cameras and hopefully we can continue to develope our skills and take the Fanatics to the next level.
