Duck Hunting Sundance Hunting Club

Here are the guides who make up
the Sundance Hunting Club Family:

Mr. "Big Duck Dan" Schell of Chico, CA.
Dan has been a waterfowl hunting guide since 1986 and has guided over 1200 hunts. He has been to the world duck calling championship in Stuttgart, Arkansas, three times. His best finish was 16th. Dan has seven state and regional duck calling titles to his credit. He can call ducks anywhere from California to Maine. His confidence is in calling long distance ducks at heights of 500 to 700 yards. Dan is an expert at calling honkers, specks, snows, and blues geese. Dan loves to be guiding 6 or 7 hunters at the goose pit when the geese are flying. When the shooting begins, it starts raining geese. Dan uses a Remington 1187 12-gauge as his guide gun. He uses a Wayne Betts duck call for open water calling and a combination of 4 or 5 other calls for timber duck hunting and goose hunting.

Mr. Dave "Swimmer" Walsh of Oroville, CA.
Dave has been guiding for six years and has guided over 400 hunts. He works very hard for his clients. That's probably the way Dave got his nick name: "Swimmer." Once Dave was guiding at the goose pit when a hunter sailed a goose 400 yards away. Dave ran after the goose and then swam across a creek 12-feet deep to retrieve the goose for his hunters. Ask for Dave "Swimmer" Walsh and he will give you everything he has and more. Dave uses a Mossberg shotgun, a Joe Lares duck call, and several types of goose calls.

Mr. Sundance himself: David "Take em" Schell of Durham, CA.
Dave has been guiding for 19 years and has guided over 1700 hunts. Dave uses what he calls old style calling when working waterfowl. He can turn those ducks on a dime and get them right in your face. Many hunters know hunting with Dave they are not really being guided but just hunting with a long time friend. Many people ask him why he is still guiding, and his response is "the clients that hunt with us are special. I look forward to hunting with all the 10 shoot card guys, because of the friendships that are forged." The new clients who hunt with us every year are very special, because once you hunt with Sundance you always come back, so you become one of those "friends." Dave uses a Remington 870 shotgun, a Wayne Betts and J. Lares mallard call, a wingsetter whistle, a haydels cutdown speck call, a tube snow call, and a Knight and Hale double-cluck honker call. Dave gives you everything he's got on every hunt.

Mr. Richard "Great White Hunter" Schell of Paradise, CA.
The father of Dave and Dan Schell, he taught the boys early about duck and goose calling techniques and how to hunt. Richard moved up to Paradise three years ago and now enjoys hunting all the time instead of the limited time offered while living in San Jose.

Miss Kelsey "Golden Lab" Schell
Age 8 years old. Started retrieving ducks and geese when she was 5 months old. She has retrieved over 10,000 birds. Kelsey loves to hunt more than any dog I have ever seen. It's hard for her to hunt with other dogs, because she wants to get all the birds herself. She will tolerate other dogs if they are experts, but she's tough on them when it comes time to retrieve those birds.

Mike "Rattle Snake" Merlo
Mike is a class act. He will give you 110% every day he hunts, you can just see it in his eyes "he loves to duck hunt." Mike will stay from dawn to dark, move to other properties, take his hunters down a levee and set up a dozen decoys if he believes it will work. He is as quick as a rattlesnake in changing calls to fool the prey. Mike uses a Bennelli shotgun, has over 10 calls around his neck at all times, and a nice black lab named Tule.

Mike "10 gauge" Seros
"10 Gauge Seros is a blast to hunt with. He lets it all hang out in the duck blind, a great excellent duck caller and a great goose caller. Any day hunting with "Seros" is fun spent out in the duck blind, Mike will give you the maximum energy he has everyday for a successful hunt. Mike uses a Browning shotgun, and calls for snows, honkers, specks, mallards, widgeon, teal, & pintail.

Dan "Honker Man" Mallia
Dan is a great guy to hunt with. When he calls it's like sweet music to the ducks. I call him "Honker man" because he loves to chase those big White Cheeks. Dan lives to hunt, and will be a blast to hunt with. With over 20 years experience hunting and calling ducks Dan is an expert. Dan uses a Browning Gold shotgun, A J.J Lares and Gaston Duck Calls, and the Basin Abomination goose calls (Snows, Specks, & Honkers). He also lives in Duck Country (Willows, CA)

Mark Repetto has been an avid waterfowler for the last 24 years here in the Sacramento Valley, and has been a licensed and bonded Guide for the last 8 years. He prides himself on being a master at the art of calling ALL the different species of waterfowl. Mark has been a guest on the Bob Simms Outdoor Radio Show as well as the Foothills Outdoor Radio Show where he demonstrated his calling ability. He has conducted several seminars over the years on calling waterfowl. Mark also appeared in the Oct./Nov. 1999 Wildfowl Magazine.

Mark's favorite waterfowl calls include, Joe Lares A5 and Little Joe for mallards, Billy Gianquinto's Whistles for the whistling ducks, Basin Abomination and Chein Callie for Specks, Winglock Honker Call, and Woods Snow Flurrie for the white geese.

Mark's choice to slay the ducks is a Browning BPS pump.

"Finn " is a 5 year old female black lab that is trained to blind retrieves and handling. She is a duck's worse nightmare once they hit the water!

It is Mark's goal at each and every hunt to make sure the clients are not only walking away with a strap of birds, but also with a waterfowling experience that lasts a lifetime!

Sage. Daughter of Kelsey, she is four years old and has retrieved over 4200 ducks and geese.

She just loves to hunt and can point and hold a pheasant on point for 2 full minutes. Sage is very patient and will hunt all day everyday. She can spot ducks and geese even before you see them, best thing is to watch Sage as she knows where the birds are.

Blue. Son of Kelsey, he is four years old and is owned by Daniel Schell, Blue loves to hunt anything and everything, he is funny and will give you that "how did you miss that look". Blue is a big hard hitting male and will plow through cover to get the birds.

Tule. Owned by Mike Merlo, Tule is 2 years old and is a great retriever. This will be her first full season and she is doing great.

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Sundance Hunting Club, LLC
2599 Widgeon Lane, Durham, CA 95938
530-893-4335 . Fax 530-343-7018