I’m home from South Dakota. We had a limit by lunch time today, headed back, and now I’m repacked and ready to bowhunt tomorrow through Sunday. I’ll be generally away from the computer but I’ll try and get some pictures and updates. Until then, good luck everyone.

I’m pheasant hunting near Platte, South Dakota today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. More details when I have time. Today:

Honestly, please explain a factual scenario where this is possible?

Aaron J. Long, 20, of Fairfield, Ill. was killed last Thursday night when his 16-year-old friend and hunting partner mistook Long for a wild turkey and shot him in the back with an arrow.

Wayne County Sheriff Jim Hinkle said Long had been hunting near the Sam Dale Lake State Park with several friends Thursday evening. Long was pronounced dead at 7 p.m. when officers arrived on scene.

“Mr. Long was sitting on a small ridge when his 16-year-old friend walked up on him and mistook him for a wild turkey,” Hinkle said. “He was struck in the upper back and died at the scene.”

The accident is being investigated by the Illinois State Police, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Wayne County Coroner Jimmy Taylor.

From here.

Exactly what sequence of events could lead you to confuse a human adult male with a wild turkey at archery range? Horrible, for everyone involved, but such an incredible waste.

I closed up the office mid-afternoon yesterday and bowhunted the last couple of hours. I passed on this little 7 and a few does. Not much action but the wind was awful, swirling as it went from NNW to S.

This morning I tried a different stand because I was hoping the wind would stay out of the south. I saw a couple of does and a couple of buttons. Note the turnips, wheat, and clover they’re eating:

Then mid-day I was checking the football scores and grabbing a late breakfast when these guys tooled by the front porch!

This may come as a surprise to you, but I generally dislike big law firms. It’s strange because in law school we, as students, were filled with propaganda regarding how great the money was, how long or short the partnership track was, how big so-and-so’s clients are, etc… First and second tier law schools are subtly run by big firms, from introductions the first day, to the career services department. It didn’t help that a significant amount of the top grads take these jobs, fostering a belief that one must work to be worthy of the great legal sweatshops. Sadly, I couldn’t care less about the physical or physiological cost of working at one. Those students generally wash out anyway and frankly, they knew what they were getting into. What really bothers me about the big firm mentality is their belief that one should bow before their superior resources. Not knowledge, resources. Both lawyers and lay people can be a victim to this.

So take, for instance, Boingboing.net who was threatened with untold hellfire and an otherworldly legal fusillade if they did not remove a picture from their website. The picture was part of an advertisement from Ralph Lauren that portrayed a female model who was unhumanly skinny. The author at boingboing suggested that it was photoshopped saying, “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis.”

So what would you expect in this situation? How about you threaten to sue the author that said something accurately negative about your ad? Of course. It couldn’t be that they are right, could it? But this type of thing happens every day. What’s unique about this case is that boingboing was not willing to be bullied. They responded with what seems to be the correct legal defense, and also offered to post any legal filings along with, “copious mockery”.

Three cheers for them. America would be better, and the legal system would be better, if more people were brave enough to stand up to a spurious legal threat.

I’ve had an absolutely awful docket this week. I’ll be in the field all next week, which means double duty now. Unfortunately that means I have nothing to write about. Fortunately I’ve made the acquaintance of some excellent hunters who are willing to share their stories with you all.

This story goes back to last year when a gentleman tracked me down and asked for some advice on a specific public area that I’d spent some time on over the years. He and his partner were coming down Minnesota for a chance to chase big Kansas whitetails. I helped to the extent I could and he was nice enough to share his pictures and stories with me.

This year he’s already got a Minnesota buck in the freezer but it’s not his. It’s his 10 year old son Jace’s! I know, crazy right? I was 16 before I killed a buck and it was another 5 years before I killed a deer with my bow. Frankly, I wasn’t strong enough at that age to shoot a bow. And this wasn’t just some random thing, he targeted this buck. They scouted it, had trail cam photos of it, and put him on the “hit list”. When the deer presented a good 20 yard broadside he took care of business with a perfect shot with a He was using a Diamond Razor Edge at 33lbs. Sounds like he had some good coaching…

P&Y 36 6/8!

Apparently this would not have been possible in Minnesota until just recently. In the last year the state has started allowing 10 and 11 year olds to hunt alongside an adult. What a fantastic opportunity to get young bowhunters in the field! Hopefully Jace and his father will have all the kinks worked out before my own daughter is old enough…

Very cool, congrats!

I’m aware that there is now a competition for everything. I’ve been to the World Championships of Duck Calling. I have a friend who competes exclusively in mounted practical field trials for pointers. Obviously if two guys get together with the same hobby someone is going to need to decide who is best. Even saying all of that, I was still surprised when I discovered that there was a coon hunting championship. My first thought was, “They have vehicles that can drive on the interstate?” followed closely by, “Could the World Championships of bad Orthodontia be held at the same time?”

Anyway, apparently Kentucky is being unseated as the long time location because an ice storm has left too many limbs on the ground. I can only assume the contestants are unlikely to run too many marathons in their free time.

According to The Professional Kennel Club Kentucky will lose approximately $3.5 million from the 7000 or so expected visitors. For those mathematically challenged, that’s an average economic impact of $500.00 per visitor or 6 months pay.

We can only hope that Kentucky is able to put this behind them. Maybe Ashley Judd could help?

So David Clark apparently likes to fall turkey hunt in his home state of Arkansas. Good times right? Well it would have been except the state canceled the season due to a poor hatch this past summer. Bad times, but what can you do with a poor hatch? Well Mr. Clark filed suit, twice actually. The first time he apparently filed in the wrong county. A judge denied his motion to reinstate the hunt while the parties prepare the case, but apparently there will be a more in-depth preliminary hearing before the scheduled October 26th opener.

You can read more about it here.