Randy Hill and Mike Galloway are the original founders of Hard Core, a leading waterfowl gear and decoy company. Hill grew up hunting on farms in Illinois, while Galloway's father introduced him to waterfowling in Ohio. They both became skilled hunters and callers. Galloway rose in the outdoor industry, while Hill started a calling business. They teamed up with Jim Schiefelbein to expand Hard Core, combining Galloway's business experience and Hill's passion for waterfowling. Despite long hours, they have grown Hard Core into a nationwide brand through their partnership and dedication to the sport.

1. “I told him, I’m going to try,” said
Hill, chuckling. “I had a plan. I was
a farmer’s kid, and knew I wanted to
operate bulldozers and as a hunter,
it didn’t hurt we were laid off during
the winter.”
Galloway’s father Norm owned
bars and restaurants in Cleveland and
would get home early in the morning,
wake-up his only son and take to the
grouse woods. Mike hated the long
walks just for a few birds. But after
the hunt, it was straight to a dirt-on-
the-floor tavern where Mike would
devour greasy cheeseburgers and pump
quarters into the PAC-MAN machine
while Norm tipped a few cold ones.
In a cut pea field on a sunny
Saskatchewan morning, Randy Hill
thumbs through his iPhone, checking
emails between flocks. His partner
in crime and fellow Hard Core vice
president Mike Galloway does the
same. For the two original members
of this ever-expanding gear and decoy
company, the work never stops.
“Honestly, I feel like I retired when
I started here,” jokes Hill, who was a
heavy equipment operator in a previous
life. “We put in some long hours just
They would scramble home for a nap,
get back up by 3 p.m. and do all the
chores—mom was none the wiser.
“When I woke up on Saturday
mornings, we would go hunting,”
Galloway said. “I can smell that
truck right now. I didn’t know any
different. I thought everybody hung
out with their dad on Saturday, shot
guns, went hunting…”
On one of those Saturday morn-
ings, Norm laid down a challenge.
He gave Mike a box of shells, left
him on a point and said, “I bet you
can’t kill a limit of ducks with these.”
As Norm tells it, his boy shot five
birds with five shells, but Mike says
it was more like nine shells. Either
way, that was the day he fell in love
with waterfowl.
“We were shooting (targets) one
night and he said, ‘man, I’d like to
get you on some ducks because you
wouldn’t be so hot,’” Galloway said.
“He exaggerates the story a little bit,
but I did kill my five.”
The Galloway clan is a mix of bar-
keeps and firemen (in some cases both).
Steeped in Irish Catholic tradition, Mike
broke from the mold and attended
Ohio University where he played
college lacrosse and began a career
in finance after graduation. His boss
at the time was asking employees to
join country clubs to meet prospective
clients. Mike asked if he could join
a duck club, softball leagues and an
archery club instead.
“It was a great learning experience;
one of the better things I’ve ever done
in my life,” Galloway said. “Since we
already had two guys at country clubs,
I asked if I could join the duck club,
and he (the boss) said ‘absolutely.’ He
didn’t care. He was going to pay for it
as long as we were out there shaking
hands and meeting people.”
When Randy wasn’t running dozers
Spotlight
A tough-as-nails dozer operator and a polished
industry vet put Hard Core on the map.
PerfectTiming By Joe Genzel
like everybody does…but I drive by
and see people doing a certain type
of work and I think to myself, ‘oh
my god, am I lucky.’”
Randy grew up on a farm in Grand
Ridge, Ill., near the current headquar-
ters of Hard Core in Ottawa. His dad
would drop him off with relatives on
cold fall mornings and he would sit
in a blind all day eating awful-tasting
sandwiches, waiting on the birds. He
and some friends started scouting on
their own as they got older, but with
no money for decoys, they would go
out to the field the next morning and
lay down exactly where the geese had
been feeding the day before. Randy
became bird-obsessed, so much so that
he never played sports in high school.
He was too busy hunting.
A math teacher tried to dissuade
Hill from chasing ducks, geese and
running coon hounds, telling the
young man “he couldn’t hunt for the
rest of his life.” But even teachers are
wrong sometimes.
Mike Galloway (left) and
Randy Hill of Hard Core.
60 WILDFOWL Magazine | December 2013/January 2014 wildfowlmag.com December 2013/January 2014 | WILDFOWL Magazine 61wildfowlmag.com

2. (and even when he was) a goose call
was firmly pressed against his lips. He
was good, and many of the guys he
worked with were bird hunters and
sought him out for tips. They would
pull over between job sites and Randy
would give impromptu lessons.
At one point, he entered a novice
callingcompetitionandwon,whichled
to state tournaments and the worlds
on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. With
Tim Grounds, Jeff Foiles and Fred
Zink on the circuit, it was arguably
one of the most difficult times to be
a competitive caller.
“I basically traveled around and got
my butt kicked,” Hill said. “I don’t
want to sound like I’m 80 years old,
but YouTube didn’t exist back then, so
it was a lot harder to become a great
(stage) caller. You had to be around
somebody who was a great caller to
learn anything.”
But Hill did become an accom-
plished meat caller by listening to
and practicing with tournament
veterans, and guiding in southern
Illinois and Michigan. Though you
won’t see his goose chops on the In-
ternet, rest assured he speaks fluent
gander and hen mallard. And the way
he talks about birds is enough to get
any waterfowler’s blood up.
“I’m looking for that one bird that
shows me a little attention,” Hill says.
“I’ll do anything to get one of those
geese to think ‘that’s my partner, that’s
my family down there.’ There’s nothing
better than when the flock is leaving
and one just peels out. And sometimes,
he’ll bring the whole flock. Then it’s
like ‘man, I got’em.’”
After a few years as a broker, Gal-
loway joined Flambeau (one of his
clients). It would lead to a career in
sales and product development, with
an expertise in decoys. He worked
with hunting industry magnate Will
Primos and spent a week with Phil
Robertson in the Louisiana marsh,
an experience he describes as getting
to “play catch with Mickey Mantle if
you’re a die-hard Yankee fan.”
Randy had started a fledgling call
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62 WILDFOWL Magazine | December 2013/January 2014 wildfowlmag.com

3. business and begun doing some side
work, designing hats and T-shirts
for friend Jim Schiefelbein of Bone
Collector. Looking to break into
the waterfowl industry, Schiefelbein
purchased Hard Core, which by then,
Galloway was a part of.
The polished son of a Cleveland
bartender, who worked his way up the
industry ladder, Galloway was paired
with the local self-made dozer driver,
Randy, who just happened to be the
hardest of hardcore waterfowlers with
a flair for concept and design.
“We both believe in ‘do what you’re
told when you’re told,’” Galloway
said. “If it’s his responsibility to get
something done, Randy gets it done.
There’s no sense of entitlement with
Randy. You wouldn’t know if he was
the VP of product development, or if he
was running the warehouse. Because
(titles) don’t mean anything to him.”
The two have taken Hard Core
from a few dozen products and rela-
tive obscurity to a catalog of gear sold
in box stores nationwide. They’ve
partnered with stalwarts like Beretta
and sponsored big-name events like
the world calling championships
in Stuttgart. The brand has taken
off under Schiefelbein’s direction,
and they’re already expanding and
talking about taking Hard Core
mainstream. Because as Galloway
puts it “you can be a Hard Core
anything…teacher, writer, as long
as you have a passion for it.”
Randy and Mike have traveled the
world together. They’ve eaten uniden-
tifiable food in China and Vietnam,
hung out backstage with country
music stars in Pittsburgh and been
pulled over by a state trooper driving
a pack of outdoor writers through the
night in the Dakotas after a canceled
flight. Last year, they missed Thanks-
giving with their families, chowing
down on a store-bought rotisserie
chicken in a Wal-Mart parking lot
on the way to Arkansas. But like the
company slogan says, “It’s Not Easy.”
“Jim shoots for the stars,” Hill said.
“He’s eight miles down the road and
through two curves…he has a vision.
When we first started here it was three
guys and he starts putting all these
cubicles up. We’re laughing, because
nothing was even in the works. Guess
what? We’re out of cubicle space and
we’re adding more offices.”
“There’s nothing better than when the flock is leaving and
one just peels out. And sometimes, he’ll bring the whole
flock. Then it’s like ‘man, I got’em.’”
64 WILDFOWL Magazine | December 2013/January 2014 wildfowlmag.com
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