October 2008 Updates page 13
30 October
Cliff's latest
Thanks Cliff. For the rest of us Cliff is a long time hunter we have enjoyed working with over the years.
Missouri Deer
Two weeks ago reservations were taken for the Missouri firearms deer season. By 3 pm we took over 200 reservations and just a few have trickled in since then.
That was a tough day on both sides of the phone. We apologize for those that had to wait, but we feel manually taking the reservations one at a time is the best solution to the system.
Once again, as a reminder, 30 day reservations are final and not subject to change.
For those that have not made a reservation we have listed the farms that are still available as of today.
The list includes over 200 farms with quality deer hunting habitat in prime regions of the state of Missouri.
Andrew A- a, b, c, e, f
Atchison A- 35a, b, c, d, e, f,
Atchison B- 11a, c
Atchison C- 13, 23, 14
Atchison D- 4, 32, 29, 15
Bates A- 20a, b
Bates B- 21a, b
Buchanan A- 7b, c, d, 14a, b
Caldwell B- 9, 31a, b
Callaway A- 29a, b, c, 35a, b, c, d, g
Carroll A- 31a, b, 5a, b, 4a, 9
Carroll B- 10a, b
Clinton A- 31a, b, c, d
Daviess B- 35
Daviess C- 1, 2, 6, 8, 16a, b, c, 34a, b
Daviess D- 8b, c, 7a, b, 25, 24a, b, c
Gentry A- 18, 12, 21, 27e, f
Gentry B- 15
Grundy A- 26a, b, c, d, e, 23a, b, 2e, d, 15
Grundy B- 34a, b, 7
Grundy C- 2a, b, c, 33a, b, c, d, e, f
Harrison B- 12a, b, 14c, 25a, b, c, d, e, f,
Harrison C- 36
Harrison D- 14, 23a, b, 27a, b, c, d, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 22, 24, 26a, b, 35
Harrison F- 16, 17, 13
Harrison H- 23
Holt F- 23, 24, 25a, b, 30, 29a, b, 36a, b, 31
Knox A- 10a, b, c, d
Linn B- 30a, b, 14, 29a, b, 25a, b, c, 27a, b, 34a, b, 8a, b, 9, 16, 15a, b
Linn C- 23a, b, 12, 7, 6, 9
Linn E- 3a, b, c, d, 11
Livingston C- 13a, b, c, d, e, 7a, b, c
Livingston F- a, b
Mercer A- 20, 29, 19, 30
Mercer B- 30a, b, 20a, b, 29a, b
Mercer D- 10
Nodaway E- 7
Pettis A- 29 a, b, 30a, b,, c
Putman A- 8b
Ray A- 7, 3a, b, c, 1, 15a, b, 8a
Ray B- 24, 3a, b, c
Sullivan B- 15a, b
Saline A- 36, 10, 11, 1
Saline B- 1, 5a, b, 6, 7, 21 a, b
Taney A- all except J - Good hunting, big farm.
Vernon A- 15, 23, 24
Vernon B- 31, 32
Vernon C- 30 a, b, c
Worth A- 10a, b, 24, 9, 30b, c
29 October
Deer Scouting
"....i have yet to get one of the big ones on camera...from what i see they move differently than the smaller ones...still have not narrowed down which stand to hunt on any day..."
It is always good to see what is out there. Good luck, thank you for the picture.
The Other Side
"Never take your eye off the ball" we all learned as kids to be successful in little league. The same should be true for sportsmen concerning the animal rights groups.
"...If Prop. 2 passes, its main sponsor, the Humane Society of the United States, expects national reverberations -- and has every intention of helping beat that drum...They are worried that this is nailing down the principle that all animals including those raised for food deserve humane treatment..."
Cluck and Cover California's Prop. 2 spurs big-bucks battle over farm-animal treatment, by Carol Ness, Grist, Environmental News and Commentary.
"...This is an animal-rights initiative, not an animal-welfare initiative..."
Proposition 2 Fuels Animal-rights Debate, by Marlys Miller, Pork, industry news source.
"...a distinction needs to be made between animal rights and animal welfare..."
Prop 2 threatens Californian agriculture, by Ian Nachreiner, Mustang Daily Net
On all the news reporting about this issue no where does it appear any hunter organization is contributing to fight against animal rights initiatives.
Western Kansas Deer
We are beating a dead horse we know reference first time open lands deer hunters largely motivated by the jump in available Kansas deer tags this season.
Several members experienced in open lands deer hunting gave in pictures and text on this update page well before the season what to expect. The MAHA staff cautioned first time open lands hunters about patience and glassing rather than walking. We recognized long ago just as most know that one adult to another cannot train another on hunting. Second, we knew that as a self guided hunter organization there are limits with the current one at point being not having a guide on the ground to control that first time open lands hunter. With all that prior knowledge we made an honest attempt to modify hunter behavior with the understanding it would not work. The final point is what we have observed during spring turkey season and the first time central mid-west deer hunter, that point being those that hunt outside of their past experience in terms of habitat and behavior fail to adapt through modifying their hunting techniques when faced with unfamiliar conditions. That has come to pass based on performance from the Kansas September - October muzzleloader and early archery season. Several deer hunters on our best western Kansas deer land made comments about poor hunts or described failed hunts. That is the way it is.
Now with the remainder of Kansas archery season and soon to be on us rifle deer season we have based on current feedback have had our lowest performance in a long time in terms of early season tag-on success in Kansas. This lower performance is not due to the number of successful hunters changing, it is due to the increase in total hunters with the successful ones being those with several seasons of open lands hunts behind them. Those expressing dissatisfaction have been those on their first western Kansas deer hunt or scouting trip.
The hope for the remainder of the season is that those headed to the open country may decide to sit just a bit longer than walk the ground and push deer for every one else.
31 October
Waterfowl
All of the blinds have been covered and we have water everywhere except Holt A and Cass A, which are waiting for the beans to be harvested. As soon as the beans are harvested in Holt County we will turn on the pump. With dry weather in the forecast we are hoping to get things moving soon. Cass A will require run off rain to fill the marsh.
This year flood water and wind toppled three of our blinds, but we were able to recover all three. For those that enjoy hunting from our blinds we've included a few photos of what goes on behind the scene and why Jon is so hard to catch in the office.
Iowa Upland Bird Opener
Thanks to Mike for this update in pictures and several others for their emails.
The consensus is agreement with all other Iowa upland bird forecasts that Iowa's pheasants and Bobwhite Quail numbers are lower than last year. A second consensus is that just like any year of down bird numbers that does not mean there are not birds to be hunted. Daily pheasant limits were achieved or as described by some should have been attained. What is different is that limits did not come from a single field hunt that seems to motivate the majority of the mainstream news media article writers. An Iowa pheasant limit this opener came from multiple fields, half day and full day hunts.
Our southern Iowa Bobwhite Quail region yielded zero through two coveys on a day's hunt. The best days for anyone was a pheasant limit and two coveys with several having that pheasant limit over more than one day of their trip.
A side note that we screen for in the feedback was the type (pointer/flusher) and number of dogs hunted per hunter. For Iowa this opening week it was 1.3 dogs per hunter and all were pointing dogs.
By the courtesy of Mike:
"...This is the results of the second morning [departure day] after two hours of hunting..."
Notice the single dog box.
Mike was nice to send in some photos showing the habitat quality of where he was hunting.
Most think contiguous tall CRP grass for pheasant hunting, especially those dependent on flocked up birds that guarantee a dumb one that flushes short on most days. Those with upland bird hunting skill and dog power will find good to high quality hunting and very good to excellent dog work in this type of non-CRP pheasant and quail habitat. This difference was once described to us by another as contrasting between those that hunt with brute force and ignorance tromping through the whole field to those that can see where to hunt and have the ability to train dogs.
Thanks Mike, you are very good to others.
For those traveling through Iowa with a focus to hunt Kansas a stop over for 2-3 days in Iowa will offer a chance to shorten the drive and to hunt a different type of pheasant habitat than that of contiguous tall grass and the chance for some quail on the same walk.