Greenhead presents the 2023 Executive Q&A featuring a panel of executives sharing their must-haves, top tips and favorite memories in the field.
Mike Rainwater
Partner
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton
Number of days you hunt a season? Around 15 days
Where do you hunt? Mostly in the Stuttgart and Humphrey area, although I really enjoy hunting in northeast Arkansas when the opportunity arises.
Club name? Mallard Grove
What kind of gun do you use? Beretta A400 Xtreme most of the time but I also really like to use the new Browning A5, mostly because it reminds me of my grandfather’s Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen, which was his go-to duck gun.
Favorite duck call? Echo Calls — I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know Rick Dunn, and I’ve enjoyed getting to use his calls. Rick and his team at Echo have been very generous to us, helping us with our club-sponsored youth hunt weekends.
Fields, reservoir or timber? The holy grail of Arkansas is green timber, of course, and I love being there when those birds put their landing gear down. My second favorite is an old willow break in an otherwise cultivated field.
Rainy, nasty or bluebird sky? Bluebird sky on a crisp day is pretty awesome. But there is something about having to go out in the nasty and trying to find some birds.
Favorite hunting story/memory? It was a bitterly cold morning years ago, forecasted to be 8 degrees. We knew the water would be frozen, but we wanted to give it a go on such a cold day. I was hunting that day with my now-deceased law partner, Stephen Holt, as well as my youngest son, Ben. Ben was the biggest of the three of us, a high school football lineman at the time. So, he led the way and became our ice-breaker, pulling me and Stephen in a boat to get to our blind on some property we owned in the middle of the Black Swamp. We got there, got the water open and ended up with some wood ducks. It was a “mission accomplished” kind of day that still brings me joy to think about.
What got you into hunting? Hunting with my grandfather in the White River bottoms around Raft Creek
What is your most unusual “must have” in the duck blind? I like to carry the old-school Zippo hand-warmers. In fact, I carry two so I can increase the odds that at least one works through the whole hunt. Also, my collapsible coffee cup.
Where is your go-to spot for breakfast/meals on a hunting weekend? A&C Fish in Humphrey. Owner Scotty McCarty does it right.
If you have children, do you take them duck hunting? If so, what are some of the highlights from these youth hunts? Yes, I have three sons and eight grandchildren. My primary motivation is that my sons continue a hunting and outdoor tradition in their families, and that is happening. I have six granddaughters and they get to go hunting too. I see Arkansas outdoors as the proof positive that God created it all, it all works together for good, and the reality is so much more satisfying than any proposed virtual reality. For me, the highlights are for my sons to take their children hunting as a part of the life they are building for their own families. I get almost as much satisfaction from participating vicariously (hearing the reports and seeing the pictures) as I do being there myself. And, I really want them to be able to hunt with Dad as well as with Grandpa.
Which Arkansas executive calls ducks the best? Brent Birch — an accomplished outdoor writer, a publisher, a podcast co-host and the director of the Little Rock Technology Park — is a top notch caller, especially calling geese. Brent now makes his own small batch of custom “Birch” goose calls — and he is a really, really good goose hunter.
