Things are looking up at the Five Guys and a Swamp Duck CLub since my last post. We’re still not seeing any ducks but now we don’t really give a damn. Our two new members have made sitting in the blind on a slow day a lot more interesting.
Category: Hunting
-
Do ducks exist in Missouri?
Do ducks exist in Missouri? You bet…but you probably won’t see them. With over 90,000 ducks at Four Rivers Waterfowl Management Area and another 90,000 loafing at Schell Osage we should be covered up with waterfowl. Oh sure, they’re “stale ducks”, birds that have been here a long time and know where not to go. But in my opinion that’s only part of the problem.
I’ve hunted in Bates County, MO since the 1970’s and I know for a fact that our hunting was better in the 80s, the low point in the continental waterfowl population. In those days the refuge areas were loafing areas and the birds flew out to feed in grain fields twice a day. We used to see ducks coming into our decoys at mid-morning with mud caked on their feet from feeding in grain fields. Now we’re lucky to see a duck. Period. Grain planted on the refuge areas makes it possible for the birds to loaf all day, then fly a few yards to feed on government corn, then fly back to their loafing areas without ever encountering a duck hunter. They are waterfowl welfare recipients.
Our best hunting occurs in seasons when early floods destroy the food on Four Rivers and Schell Osage and the birds resume their normal patterns. We waterfowl habitat owners bust our butts all year long creating duck habitat that’s ignored come duck season.
Waterfowl conservation is important. We are all members of Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl. But area managers need to start managing their habitat for hunters as well as waterfowl or funds from licenses and contributions will eventually dry up. It’s hard to get a youngster interested in duck hunting when he sits in a blind for three hours staring at a blank sky.
-
Big Ness County, KS buck
One of my favorite deer hunters Scott Morgan bagged a nice buck recently in Ness County, KS. I’ll let Scott tell it.
“I bagged this bruiser on a trip last week to Ness county – 50 miles north of Dodge City. He won’t quite make the record book, in the mid 160s range. I waited him and a half dozen other whitetails out and took him right at the end of shooting hours on the 2nd day of the season, Dec. 4th. I got him at the confluence of the north and middle forks of Walnut creek. Just a short distance away Custer and 700 of his best friends camped in 1867. They eventually ended up at the Little Big Horn…”
-
White tail deer
It’s that time of year again. Scott Morgan of Baldwin City, KS has been busy with his trail cam and has come up with this beautiful photo of a fine white tail buck. Now you guys who are still young enough to climb up into and out of a tree stand get your butts out there and bring home some venison!
-
Dove hunting in Missouri
Why am I always the last to know? After limiting out opening morning at a public dove hunting field east of Clinton, MO my friend Gary asked me to go back the next afternoon. Beautiful field, sunflowers, the doves favorite snack, mowed in strips leaving hunters room to hide in the uncut part. Typical dove hunting weather. Hot, lots of bug spray and sunblock. But the doves didn’t show up. As someone once put it, “If every time you went into McDonald’s somebody started shooting at you, it wouldn’t take long for you to find a new place to eat”.
Gary shot one bird that fell in heavy cover and his Lab pup Cody used his nose and found it. I shot one bird and it fell in the same area but with even thicker cover and Cody couldn’t find it. Oh well…nice afternoon to be outdoors.
Afterwards we ate dinner at Mallard’s Roadhouse on highway 7 west of Clinton. As you would expect, duck hunting decor, wood paneled walls etc. Made us feel right at home. Good service and excellent food. We’ll be back!
-
Tweener Time
Once again it’s Tweener Time when you get the rare privilege of viewing a cartoon that is too salacious and degenerate to appear in outdoor sports publications yet too outdoorsy for Playboy, the magazine for the urban male. To understand this cartoon all you need to know is that bucks are male deer and the critters in this cartoon are female deer.
-
Tweener Time
Once again it’s Tweener Time. A “Tweener” is a cartoon too outdoorsy for Playboy but too raunchy for outdoor magazines. It’s sort of the anti-Goldy Locks , it’s in between.
-
Cody’s introduction to water and shotguns
I think it was Gene Hill who said, “If there are no Labrador retrievers in heaven, I don’t want to go”. Or maybe it was Faith Hill. Anyway, I agree.
Raising and training a Lab pup is an exasperating but rewarding job. You can almost see the wheels turning in their heads as they absorb everything you teach them.
I’ve trained five Labs and my long-time friend Gary Custer of Lee’s Summit, MO has trained many more. Now eight months old and ready for water, Gary’s male Lab Cody is ready to take on new challenges.
Gary and I recently introduced this gangly black ball of energy to water and shotguns. All legs, feet and wagging tail, Cody started doing what he was born and bred to do and thoroughly enjoyed himself in the process. He’s no Ester Williams right now but style will come when he gets those big webbed feet under control.
While I fired a shotgun in the air forty yards in front of him as Gary threw a training dummy Cody learned the big boom means something fun is coming. Gradually moving closer we soon had the pup sitting at his owner’s side while Gary fired the shotgun and I tossed the dummy.
If Gary can scare up a pigeon or duck sometime this summer Cody will learn what feathers are all about. That’s when the real fun begins.
No doubt about it, this pup will be ready for duck season come November.
-
A Buck’s Worst Nightmare
You’re a whitetail buck and the rut is on. Your neck is swollen with lust, you’re rubbing your new antlers on every little tree you can find and making scrapes in the ground all over your territory trying to find the right girl for you. What is your worst nightmare?
-
Cocker Spaniels
The other day my wife played bridge with a woman who brought along a Cocker spaniel. She said it was a service dog. When my wife asked what kind of service a Cocker spaniel could provide, the woman said the dog was trained to pick things up off the floor for its owner. You know, for old geezers like us who can’t bend over…and get back up.
Most service dogs I’ve seen have been Labs, goldens, or German shepherds. My Labs have all been smart dogs but I can’t see them being trained to pick things up off the floor and give them to me. When any of my Labs found anything on the floor they would automatically eat it, roll in it, or try to have sex with it.
Cocker spaniels were once upland hunting dogs but down through the ages their hunting instincts were bred out of them. I know people like that. I call them Human Cocker Spaniels. They think meat is something you buy wrapped in paper at the grocery store… or they don’t eat it at all.
That’s why, when people refer to me as a Neanderthal, I take it as a compliment.
