So after work I ran a ways west of town to look at the dove field I’ll be shooting tomorrow morning. I saw more than a few doves. Check back tomorrow for a report.

I’m headed to the lake now. Play nice amongst yourselves and hopefully I’ll have pictures when I get back.

So I’m toeing the line yesterday at the local law library when I get an email from a guy who says he likes my pictures. I thank him for the compliment and a discussion ensues. He says:

Unfortunately I’m gonna have to do my hunting vicariously through guys like you this season. I’m stuck in Iraq with my National Guard Unit. This is the 3rd Hunting Season I’ve missed due to deployments now.

As best I can tell he mostly runs pointers on pheasants. He’s from Pennsylvania but travels to South Dakota to chase wild birds each year. I was inspired by both his sacrifice for our country and the quality of some of his upland pictures so I asked if he would allow me to bring them to you. He was generous enough to say yes:

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When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.

- Ernest Hemingway

Quick, what do all of the above pictures of me have in common? That’s right, I was wearing my lucky North Face “Denali” vest. I own 3 of their vests and 2 more made by other companies, plus the one DU sent me as my yearly signing bonus a few years ago, but for hunting and outdoor activities only one of them makes the grade. It’s warm enough to be an outer layer early in the season, thin enough to layer over in the late season. It’s got pockets for shells, cameras, GPS, whatever you need. Since it’s black it can be used as an outer layer for duck hunting under chest waders. And obviously it’s extremely lucky. To say I’m emotionally attached would be an understatement.

Then the unthinkable happened. I was washing it to get the smoke smell off from the camp fires on the bear hunt when the zipper fell apart. So I called The North Face in California and told them that I had a 10 year old vest that I wear the heck out of and I want them to fix it. They say no problem, send it in, we’ll fix it or give you a new one, no questions asked. I didn’t want a new one.

Ten days after I sent it in I’ve got a package from California on my front step. I nervously tear it open and… My vest lives! Brand new zipper but otherwise unchanged and all at no cost to me. I’m a fan for life.

I’ve spent 4 of the last 8 days in some form of preparation for this fall. Last weekend we got a couple of food plots in before the rain started.

They are each half to three quarters of an acre and hopefully will grow wheat, rye, turnips, clover, alfafa, and peas. Last year we sorta over did it with the turnips and they took over the whole plot (a little turnip seed goes a long way):

Then mid-week I worked with the Feds, a farmer friend and the local co-op to check on the status of getting 20 acres of food plots planted for the WRP property. I have no idea how it looks but it was allegedly drilled before the recent rains. I saw two absolutely tremendous bucks on this property last year but never fired a shot and ended up eating my Missouri rifle tag. I plan to have a few more stands on this property for the 2009 season.

And then yesterday and today I knocked out the rest of the food plots at the Kansas place where we do most of our hunting. After running the disk for a couple of hours I got back to the cabin and noticed 10 jakes and toms hanging out just below the deck. I snagged my video camera and tried to shoot some footage but I was distracted by the crazy crop duster that kept flying right over my head. Take a look:

Anyway, that project is done, now there are stands to place there on the Kansas side too… and dove season is only 10 days away…

What can be better than a track and field controversy? A dental visit? 8:30 in-custody criminal docket call? Mowing in the rain? The first problem is that T&F is nearly unbearable to watch, the second is that no one cares who wins. Think NASCAR without the marketing department… And then just when someone comes along and starts to dominate they get popped for some type of doping, sometimes involving horse drugs(!?!)…

So why are we even talking about it? Because when the controversy is over the gender of the winner we’re interested. Caster Semenya is competing and dominating as a woman but there may be some doubt… Take a look:

Photo courtesy of Olivier Morin, AFP/Getty Images

It appears that officials from the IAFF are concerned as well. Spokesman Nick Davies claimed it was a, “medical issue, not an issue of cheating”. Apparently the testing is complicated and could take some time.

His/her coach Michael Seme uncorked this gem:

We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man. It’s a natural reaction and it’s only human to be curious. People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt. But I can give you the telephone numbers of her room-mates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide.

Well now I’m convinced…

Last year a couple of guys got my email address off a comment I made over at The Outdoor Smorgasbord offering to help if dihardhunter had any questions before he came to Kansas to deer hunt. I admit I was somewhat surprised that my comment even showed up, much less the #3 hit on Google for Kansas Unit 11!

But I had a great time working with a group of guys from Florida and another group from Wisconsin. I offered my thoughts where I had hunted in the past and where I might try now, mostly on public ground. It was also fun to hear from these guys when they returned with pictures and stories to share.

So now I’m extending the offer again… If you’re looking for ideas on hunting Unit 11 or 19 in Kansas drop me a line at dukkillr@hotmail.com

Still not convinced? I shot this buck after he walked off of Unit 11 public ground a few years back…

I was cruising through Peterson’s Bowhunting today when I ran into an article on page 28 regarding the influence moon phase has on whitetail movement. I really had no idea this was such a hot topic until I started surfing a bit in preparation for this post…

I’ve always assumed moon phase had absolutely nothing to do with deer movement for the same reason some people do. Namely, when I was learning to deer hunt my grandfather said it didn’t matter. I suspect if you take 100 average believers you’d discover than 99 of them had a father or grandfather tell them it was an important factor. Once that idea is entrenched it’s simply a matter of selective memory and a failure by the average hunter to collect a scientifically valuable set of data. I’ve never kept data of any type but I’ve also never noticed any correlation.

Anyway, a handful of researchers published a study called, “Measuring Fine-scale White-tailed Deer Movements and Environmental Influences Using GPS Collars”. In it they studied different variables in connection with deer movement. To quote them, “Moon phase had no effect on daily, nocturnal and diurnal deer movements.”

Now do you think this will dissuade believers? I somehow doubt it. For whatever reason traditional hand-me-down knowledge is very slow to change in the hunting world, particularly the deer hunting world.

So hw many of you actually applied for a Kansas Special Hunt like I advised you to do here and here?

Well maybe not enough of you did apply because I drew my first choice upland hunt. That marks the first time in the history of the program that I’ve drawn anything, and only 12 applicants were drawn! Now if I could have chosen to focus my luck perhaps I’d have an Arizona elk tag but beggers can’t be choosers.

It always seems like the last few weeks of August just crawl by, but this year is worse than normal. I’ve now got 3 dove openers, the teal opener, a Colorado elk bowhunt, and the arrival of my first child all scheduled to occur in the next 5 weeks!