I’m getting on a plane in the morning for the Pacific Northwest.  I’ll try to squeeze in something while I’m there… We’ll see…  Until then, take a look around.  Check out the other SM blogs, they all got cleaned up too…

So in the meantime, take a trip over to The Outdoor Smorgasboard for video and pictures of his recent trip to Southeast Kansas.

Anyway, I was sent this little piece that Bowhunting World did the other day and I thought I’d pass it along. I particularly liked this:

BW: How often do you go out on your farms and get skunked like the average guy?

MD: A lot. Most days we get skunked, just like everybody. I don’t care how much land you’ve got and how good it is and how well it’s managed, mature bucks win most of the time when you’re hunting with a bow.

TD: Want a good example? A few years ago I killed my first buck of the year on my 60th day of bowhunting. That’s a lot of getting skunked!

60 days of getting skunked before dropping the string? That’s dedication, and that’s what kills big bucks. It’s also more time that most hunters will spend in a decade… Here’s the whole piece.

I’ll try to be back tomorrow.

Check back for a blow-by-blow. Also, check over at The Outdoor Smorgasbord. He’s returned to Southeast Kansas for a muzzleloader hunt. He’s promising regular updates.

So I did a search for hunting blogs that also had some dove recipes and ended up with NorCal Cazadora. She’s a huntress, (Hunter? I’m not really sure huntress is a word?) writer, and professor, or so I gather. She also dates a guy who apparently is an accomplished cook. As I read through it is quickly apparent that Holly and I very different in the way we approach hunting and the outdoors, but I already knew that and it certainly is not a bad thing.

The bad thing? Well, she was part of the small group the Northern Californians who came rushing to the defense of high fence operator T. Michael Riddle a while back. Actually, even that isn’t a bad thing, she was standing up for her friend and I think she even knew someone who worked there or something… But then on a different blog she called me an, “Asshat”.

I’ll be honest, I get called a lot of things, some earned, some not. I’ve never heard that one before. I’m not even sure what it means. My offending behavior? Well I pointed out that shooting a tame buck wasn’t poaching, it was theft, or conversion. If you shoot a neighbors cow, you’re not poaching, why would shooting a fenced in deer be any different? Then she attacked me for hunting baited bears because, you know, we’ve all got to stick together… The exchange is at the link above, you can decide for yourself… I took leave of that conversation and I don’t think I’ve heard from, or thought about her since then (although it is interesting to note that Mr. Riddle posted polite comments on my blog in the months following the whole stir – more on that someday).

Ultimately if I couldn’t survive differing opinions I wouldn’t have a career, and I respect the work Holly does. The rest… well… I’ve shown before with Mr. Rasch that I can have a productive relationship with those who can disagree respectfully (even if the respect is mostly one sided). So, Asshat or not, NorCal Cazadora has been added to the roll under “Outdoor Blogs I Read”, and I do suggest you read it. You can decide for yourself on the baited bears, high fences, tame pheasants, and rabbits that aren’t scared.

Oh, the link that prompted all of this? Here’s a recent post of hers on dove hunting, that features several very interesting recipe links.

Which is good, because here is what I did after work today:

It’s been a fantastic dove season so far but it may be coming to an end. Sunday’s hunt showed that our Kansas hot spot had slowed down dramatically. Today’s hunt showed that the Missouri spot has also slowed down. I had a good shoot, but with all of the corn fields being cut, the doves had other places to go, and they went there. If today is the last dove hunt of the season it’s still been a fantastic year, and these guys certainly enjoyed the warm-up for the serious hunts to come, maybe as soon as 6:30 tomorrow morning…

Anyway, what we’re talking about here is the highlights of my 2009 season. A few years back I ran out of space on my desk and book shelf for any more pictures, so I combined the best 3 pictures from that season and framed them together. Then for 2008 I made a matching set but had to use 4 pictures. Now my 2009 set is done.

The first two spots were easy to fill. I killed two fantastic bucks in 2009, one on the last day of the Kansas rifle season and the other on the first day of the Missouri rifle season.

The third was also easy. The second and larger of my two spring ’09 bears had to be included.

That left at most one spot. The opener of the 2009 turkey season was one I’ll never forget with The Old Man and I each guiding our half of a father/son combo on toms with good shows.

I went on to have a good turkey season on my own as well, but nothing that made the grade. I also had several fantastic duck hunts, including a wonderful shoot on the opening day of the Kansas season where a friend and I killed nearly a limit of doves at the trucks after killing a limit of ducks.

That same friend was also a part of a classic late season duck bender when the red legged drakes were in tight…

There were great pheasant hunts in South Dakota and Kansas, dove hunts in Kansas and Missouri, and stud archery bucks taken by The Old Man and The Arkansas Boys. There were three duck bands and two banded geese. I killed 2 Missouri does and 1 in Kansas. I killed my first bear. The Old Man and I killed a pile of fish together on his first shoot.

2009 was a fantastic year by any measure I can imagine, but ultimately it was hard to ignore what was probably the best goose hunt of my life for that final spot.

This has been perhaps the most fun post I’ve ever created. I used to keep a journal of my hunts but looking back through old blog posts and the associated pictures is much better. I would encourage any outdoor blogger out there to create their own hall of fame. Even if your readers don’t care, you will enjoy it. I’ve also added a Hall of Fame category so I can add classes in the future (or even past) and store potential candidates from the 2010 season.