Sorry for the lack of action. I’ve been working hard for the last few days. I’m hoping to get out tomorrow and work on that Missouri rifle tag.

We had a good shoot in Pratt. Perhaps not as many roosters as last year, but the weather was terrible. Mid 30s and raining for the whole trip… not good.

Up to this point everything I’ve touched has turned to gold. Tonight things balanced out a bit. I had two tremendous bucks, both in range, and never had a shot. I was hunting a marshy area where the deer could take a step or two and disappear into tall grass, only to reappear 50 yards away. For a brief moment I had a chance at a neat non-typical that looked to be a base 7 with all kinds of funky growth. He was as tall as any deer I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately a shooting opportunity never presented itself. After that came a small 8 point chasing a doe. Then came a very symmetrical 10 point with good mass and solid length. I figured him to be around 150. I watched him for nearly 5 minutes, at one point even flipping off the safety and taking a deep breath, only to have him turn and vanish into the grass. Frustrating.

On the plus side, I’m very pleased with the quality of deer I saw. Today was my first hunt at this spot, but it won’t be my last.

One of the two gentlemen from Arkansas who came up to bowhunt with us scored last week. After 5 days on stand, and passing several smaller deer, he had a nice broadside on this dude:

Rough scored at 137, it was reasonably tall with good mass but not much width. Strangely, no one had spotted this buck before. It was his largest bow kill to date. Congrats.

So many deer, so little size. This is the 15th consecutive year I’ve opened the Missouri Rifle Season at the family farm near Springfield, Missouri. In the early years I was pleased to shoot any buck, but over the years my hunting has evolved. Limited nutrition, bad herd management, and powerfully uneducated hunters makes the Ozarks region a difficult place to find a real trophy.

On opening morning I passed two mature 8 pointers, the bigger of which probably would have been in the 125-130 range. He was tall and narrow but had good tine length. I passed on him and about 10 does and spikes.

Today was a perfect deer hunting day. It was a cold and clear morning with light wind. I encountered the bigger 8 again, plus this young 7:

I had about 25 deer sightings this morning, plus turkeys, ducks, and geese. Unfortunately nothing was worth my tag. Starting tomorrow I’ll be hunting closer to town on a piece of ground that has great swampy habitat and better trophy potential.

Well, since I’ve punched my Kansas tag, it’s time to change states. Tonight I’m headed Southeast to a family farm in the Missouri Ozarks. There will be a bunch of deer, but the biggest buck I could honestly expect to see would be a 130-140 class deer. I should have plenty of pictures tomorrow.

I also just got word that one of our Arkansas guests just stuck a nice buck that rough scored 137. I’m being promised pictures by mid-day tomorrow when I come out of the woods.

I’ve also heard the same story from two different second-hand sources about a monster buck that was stuck on the public ground not far South of here. Rumor has it that the buck was gut shot and ran by the hunter with intestines visible. The hunter apparently jumped the deer twice more before he lost him. TWICE?!?!?!? I can understand once, but twice? Anyway, I know the area this deer disappeared into quite well, and I may try my own hand at the search later next week. I feel bad for the hunter and the deer.

Joe Posnanski writes for the Kansas City Star and happens to be my favorite sports writer. His sense of humor makes me look like a crazy person because I’ll sitting at court or in a library laughing all by myself at the newspaper.

Anyway, he runs a blog that’s mostly about baseball. His most recent post includes this:

OK, it’s 5 a.m. in the Oakland Airport — yeah, 5 a.m., this is what I’m going through so I could meet Dave Eggers — and I am staring straight at one of those little mini-airport billboards for something called “Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley.” The Laser Eye’s spokesman of choice? Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell.

The billboard reads: “Best Arm, Best Vision. JaMarcus can throw 80 yards with accuracy. Dr. Gary Kawesch enhanced Jamarcus’ vision in July 2007.”

I have to wonder if, in retrospect, Dr. Gary and the good people at Laser Eye regret putting all their commercial faith in the church of Jamarcus Russell Accuracy. What’s he hitting these days, about 45 percent of his passes? I mean, the guy could overthrow Wyoming. I’m not saying they should have completely abandoned the whole JaMarcus sales strategy, I’m just thinking they could have toned down the accuracy part just a little bit, you know, maybe gone with something a little more subtle like, “Great Arm. Improved Vision. JaMarcus can throw 80 yards. And if you think he misses receivers now, you should have seen him BEFORE Dr. Gary Kawesch enhanced his vision. I mean, seriously, the guy was like almost blind. He kept calling Dr. Gary, ‘Al.’ At one point, he tried to eat one of our coasters because he mistook it for a delicious cinnamon bear claw. Believe us, it could have been a lot worse

The rest is equally funny.

Anyone know how to tear apart an Ithica Model 37?

Had a great shoot this morning so I’m headed back there in the morning. There still aren’t many big ducks down, but I’m hearing some encouraging reports. After tomorrow’s morning duck hunt I’m headed to the Pratt area to pheasant hunt through Tuesday. Updates may be sparse, depending on how tired I am and how good the wireless is.

Yesterday I hunted by myself on the Missouri side. I took my puppy Kodi and was impressed. He’s learning quickly. I’m considering taking him to Pratt for 3 days of pheasant hunting, so he needed some solo time. I saw a bunch of ducks but everything continues to be bonus ducks. I saw one small bunch of mallards yesterday. I hammered away at the bunches of teal and had a great time.

Today I was invited to hunt a limited entry public place called Benedictine Bottoms that borders the Missouri River near Atchison. It was a neat place but it was too early in the season for a place like that. When everything shallow freezes and the ducks go to big water I would expect that spot to get much better. Unfortunately you’re lucky to get a chance to hunt there at all, and picking the day would greatly reduce your chance to get any hunt. Three of us killed a couple ducks but probably only saw 25-30 all morning.

I expected this weather to push a few new ducks down. Nothing I saw today led me to believe this happened though. I don’t think it got cold enough to cause any major migrations

Tomorrow it’s back to the place where I opened the Kansas season. We’ll just have to see what happens. Check back in for an update, and keep sending me your trail cam and hunting pics. I loving seeing all the deer you guys are chasing.

Regular reader and fellow Skinny Mooser dihardhunter connected on his first deer of the season. Take a gander over there and check it out.