My hunting partner and I were invited up to hunt Mississippi on another friend's property last week. My son came along, actually in hindsight, I think, my son was invited to hunt and I was only there as a driver to get him and the dogs to the property. My friend's family has about 2400 acres, along the Mississippi river, that has been in their family for over a century. He is making some habitat changes to increase the woodcock on the property and wanted to check bird numbers. We tried for woodcock, but hot weather and southern winds proved to make for an unsuccessful trip with the dogs. The second morning, after a change in wind direction, 3 woodcock were seen on the trail to the deer stand, but we didn't have time to run the dogs the second day.

The property owner wanted to get my son his first deer, but my son got buck fever and didn't have a safe shot on a little buck, so we passed on a shot. The deer pictured with my son was taken by my hunting partner, my son was happy just to hold the antlers. It was a great trip...