Kelan, Bama and Gentleman Bob.

This coming Tuesday brings in the new quail season so Kelan, Bama and I decided to go out to the Wil-Nor Hunting Preserve today to sharpen our skills. Bama did a great job and was definitely on his game and Kelan and I both shot well. We ended up with 10 birds. They flew really, really, well today about as close to wild birds as you can get. Depending on how busy it gets this week at work I may try and take a day off and try and scare up some birds.

The quail were big and healthy. That made for some great shooting.

The temp was in the high forties in the morning but warmed into the low fifties by 11:00. Bama decided he needed to cool down a little so he took a dip in one of the ponds on the farm.

And That's a Winner!

Wow what a great World Series! Every game was exciting, of course it didn't hurt that the Cardinals were in it. I was in Kansas City for game 6 on business so our group went to a 54th Street restaurant to watch the game. That was a ton of fun because all those bitter KC Royals fans that resent the Cardinals success were cheering for the Rangers. We drank a lot of beer and cheered loud enough to represent Cardinal Nation in hostile territory! We kind of looked like the picture below (minus the goggles) after we won. So that makes number 11 for the birds so I guess they're going to have to add a new flagpole in centerfield next year to make room for a new banner. By the way....Rams I hope you were paying close attention.

Dad's Weekend

Last Saturday was Dad's Weekend at Mizzou so I spent the day with Dylan at his fraternity and the Mizzou vs Oklahoma State football game. We had a great time. I really enjoy going over to Columbia and spending time on the campus. Beautiful fall day and perfect for some college football. Work has been really busy the past few weeks so it was nice to take a break and hang out with Dylan. We had great seats and saw plenty of action but unfortunately most of that action was OSU marching up and down the field on the Tigers. The OSU cowboys lived up to their name, storming up and down the field like a bunch of crazed cowboys riding into town after a long cattle drive. Hide the women and children and your football team!

A Lull in Adventure Land.

Ok so we're a little between hunting seasons right now. The doves have pretty much moved on south and quail and pheasant season is a little more than three weeks away followed by waterfowl a couple weeks later. So it's back to scouting the afore mentioned birds and training with Bama.

Saturday Bama and I drove out to an area I've duck hunted in the past to see if we could scare up any Geese or ducks. The area is called Pacific Pallisades and is about 900 hundred acres bordered on two sides by the Meramec River. An old sand dredging operation used to be in that area and there are a number of old ponds that are surrounded by woods which attract the waterfowl when the conditions are right. We got there about sunrise and walked in. Almost immediately I saw a few ducks flying up the river skirting the treeline. Followed later by a flock of about 30 geese. Good sign. Now they just need to stick around for a few weeks.

New friend for Bama

We got a new pup this past weekend and her name is Isabella and she's a boxer pit bull terrier mix. We call her Bella and the folks at the rescue shelter thought she was about a year old. Sweet disposition, potty trained and Bama gets along really well with her.

I love this time of year

College football, Major League Baseball, NFL games and bird hunting. Life is good! Got a late start dove hunting today because rain was predicted for pretty much all of today. I got up and did a few house projects but kept one eye on the weather. I finally decided what the heck let's just go and see if I can get a few birds before the rain hits. Bama and I hit a new spot today and ended up with 10 birds over about 2 hours. Then went home ate some bar-b-que and watched the end of Auburn vs Mississippi State, Alabama vs Penn State and now Notre Dame/Michigan. What's not to love about that!

Patience, I must learn patience

Yesterday I left work a little early to get a couple hours in of hunting at the farm. I decided on a location further into the property where there are a few out buildings and sunflowers are planted between them. The spot is probably about a half acre in size and surrounded on all sides by a barbed-wire fence. There are some electrical lines hanging across one section which is perfect for hanging a couple decoys. I spooked a few doves that were on the ground when I first walked up (a good sign) and so I proceeded to put out my two mojo's and decoys. In all I have two motorized mojo's, one wind driven mojo, two decoys with fishing line attached for the wire and eight clip on decoys for the fence. I decided I wouldn't use my rotating ground decoys that day because frankly I was tired of setting everything up.

I quickly had two dove come in about five minutes apart. Two doves, two shots. Good start. Well another 45 minutes goes by and nothing. I decide to pick everything up and move down by the slough for the last hour. No sooner do I grab the last decoy off the fence when four dove come in. Soon followed by five more, then another three. Damn! So I set everything back up again. Patience is something I should have brought with me. I ended up getting three more dove and missing about four.

Not a bad couple of hours but it could have been better.