BLOOD, SWEAT, and TEARS…

Since retro is king, how about the old band, Blood,Sweat, and Tears, from the sixties or seventies? Well, that could easily be the theme for our 2011 hunting season so far! In fact, with so few memorable moments it’s been nearly a complete disaster with a few exceptions.

Of course the high light of the season so far has been the trip to North Dakota in early October. Its there one often gets a feel for the upcoming waterfowl season. Fortunately my crew had some lady luck smile on us and we bagged limits nearly every day.

Experts predicted an extraordinary waterfowl season, with record numbers of birds. Yet in northern Missouri, we seemed to be in a desperate plight, with a lack of ducks during our sixty day season. To say that we were jinxed would have been a mere understatement of infinite proportions. Only experts can predict the future, mere mortals simply try to do their best inside the real world. For most of us, efforts proved to be futile, with few shots fired and fewer feathers in hand than previous years.

Over the course of a duck hunter’s life there exists the possibly of many new acquaintances. Whether its an chance encounter, an introduction between colleagues, or as a member’s guest; there is always room for another hunter in the blind. Once more new partners do not always come in human form.

Luckily, there have been some unique opportunities available this season. Of course having my daughter, Kylee in the deer stand with me will always rank as one of my greatest thrills. Misfortune has caused her deer tags to go unfilled so far, but I don’t recall any lack of confidence. In fact one of her statements, “at least I got to shoot AT a deer” really stuck with me during the season.

After years of strictly bow hunting, I dusted off my old rifle and was fortunate to take a nice buck. It was strange to reach into a Fiocchi box and grasp a metallic cartridge instead of the plastic hull of a shotgun shell!

So even though our season has been just fair to date, this year has been fantastic to a couple fellow archers. In fact, our I.T. guy, Joe Frye arrowed his best buck to date.

What’s more a good friend of ours, Tom Hipskind, returned from Iraq and filled his archery tag with an enormous buck. If ever just rewards are due this is truly one of those times!

Searching the horizon, watching and waiting, seems to be the common practice.

Setting out decoys, chatting and snoozing have all taken more time than has shooting or even calling.

If it were not for some of the special moments and friends this season would have been a total bust. Yet, there is still hope for tomorrow and the possibilities that exist therein…

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