In the earliest days of the site I was exposed to Missouri duckhunting by the likes of Mark Schuup, Ira McCauley, and others. Lying horizontally in heavily grassed marshboats in public shallow flooded ag fields with mallards at extremely close range seemed to be a common thing in Missouri, and that grabbed my attention. Move over Arkansas, there's a new mallard destination. In fact I vividly recall having a conversation with Jeff Smith over twenty years ago where he made the same observations, further adding Mark Schuup was too humble to state it, but he'd mastered mallard shooting like many aspire but few achieve.
For years now I have tried to make the trip to Missouri to hunt with Mark, who extended an open offer. Not wanting to make the trip without Thomas, whose school schedule seemed to interfere, we never could get everything lined up to make the nine hour road trip. Then Thomas graduated from high school and his college academic calendar created a much larger window to work with. Determined to make it happen this year we gave ourselves a four week window to time things as best as possible, and thankfully Mark was available. We stayed in touch all season and Mark fed us duck reports, weather forecasts, and his predictions. Finally, on January 2nd Thomas and I hit the road for three days of Missouri hunting with someone I had communicated with online for over twenty years but never met in person.
Within the first few minutes of arriving at Mark's cabin and meeting Mark, Thomas and I knew we were in for a great time as Mark informed us of the hunt and dining plans for the next three days. To say Mark is a hospitable host would be grossly understating his bonhomie. I mean from the get-go we were made to feel like special guests.
Day one had us travelling north one hour from Mark's cabin to Sumner, MO. Some of you may have heard of Locust Grove, a private club developed by Mark, Ira and his brother Aaron. If you follow Ira on Instagram you have no doubt seen pictures and video of this amazing piece of property developed exclusively for duck hunting by guys with absolute off-the-chart passion for waterfowl habitat development and hunting. A couple really unique things about this place is they ran utility power to their duck ponds and installed pumps to fill them from an underground well, and to power ice eaters to keep the water open in sub-freezing weather. Their blinds have power as well. With the flip of a switch water circulates, ice melts, blinds warm, and bacon fries. Unbelievable set-up. A lot of thought and work went into Locust Grove. It may be as close to "turn-key" as a place can get, but that wasn't by accident. It took tremendous dedication and effort to achieve. The blind we hunted is known as "Heaven" and sits next to a pond they created in the middle of some woods. The blind has become famous on social media and is recognizable by the mallard mural (Sistine Chapel-esque) Aaron McCauley and his father painted on the ceiling. The pond is situated on a known flyway between refuges and ducks passing overhead can't resist the urge to take a breather. They created a magnificent duck hole in a spot nobody had ever shot a duck. Think about that... After the hunt Mark showed us around town a bit where we stopped for a photo-op with the world's largest Canada Goose.
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Day two saw us back at Mark's farm near Booneville, MO. Mark's farm sits on the banks of the Missouri River in an area where little duck hunting goes on. Yes, you read that correctly, Mark created duck habitat in an area not known for duck hunting. This area isn't a duck hunting destination like many other places in MO, but Mark recognized the potential of this agricultural land on the banks of the Missouri River and has worked it into a duck and duck hunter paradise, miles from any other hunters. I love that fact. It took a lot of vision and even more sweat, but I've learned Mark is dedicated like few others. And just like the property in Sumner, he has utility power to his ponds to provide and keep water moving. On this day we hunted Mark's timber hole which sits right next to some very large grain fields and tucked up against the Missouri River. Ducks travelled the river and fields all day and I don't think we went more than 20 minutes between flights. Makes the time pass quickly.
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On day three Mark decided it was time to hunt his field. Typically he hunts the timber taking ducks that use his field without pressuring the field itself. This late in the season with several thousands geese and ducks making racket all night and day, Mark decided it was time for those birds to "pay the landlord" as he puts it. On this day Mark's son joined us in the afternoon. Cade, a Jr. in high school and a college baseball prospect, immediately impressed me as a fountain of energy and charm. The conversation between him and Thomas about ducks taken in their careers, ducks they still want to take, bands, etc., brought memories flooding back to that age where everything about the sport is new and exciting. We had some really good shooting that day but I think the best part for me was hearing those two talk.
Okay, so I used the term "good shooting". Well, that isn't how anyone else would describe Thomas and I that day, but we all have our good and bad days. Now Mark on the other hand put on a clinic! He has always openly admitted he shoots 6 shot from low brass shells at ducks and touted it's lethality. I'm now a witness to those claims. On more than one occasion Mark waited for both Thomas and I go go to the plug before putting a bead on a hard pumping duck at distance and with one shot getting a cold fold. You might just have to see it firsthand to believe it. The man can shoot.
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To Be continued...
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For years now I have tried to make the trip to Missouri to hunt with Mark, who extended an open offer. Not wanting to make the trip without Thomas, whose school schedule seemed to interfere, we never could get everything lined up to make the nine hour road trip. Then Thomas graduated from high school and his college academic calendar created a much larger window to work with. Determined to make it happen this year we gave ourselves a four week window to time things as best as possible, and thankfully Mark was available. We stayed in touch all season and Mark fed us duck reports, weather forecasts, and his predictions. Finally, on January 2nd Thomas and I hit the road for three days of Missouri hunting with someone I had communicated with online for over twenty years but never met in person.
Within the first few minutes of arriving at Mark's cabin and meeting Mark, Thomas and I knew we were in for a great time as Mark informed us of the hunt and dining plans for the next three days. To say Mark is a hospitable host would be grossly understating his bonhomie. I mean from the get-go we were made to feel like special guests.
Day one had us travelling north one hour from Mark's cabin to Sumner, MO. Some of you may have heard of Locust Grove, a private club developed by Mark, Ira and his brother Aaron. If you follow Ira on Instagram you have no doubt seen pictures and video of this amazing piece of property developed exclusively for duck hunting by guys with absolute off-the-chart passion for waterfowl habitat development and hunting. A couple really unique things about this place is they ran utility power to their duck ponds and installed pumps to fill them from an underground well, and to power ice eaters to keep the water open in sub-freezing weather. Their blinds have power as well. With the flip of a switch water circulates, ice melts, blinds warm, and bacon fries. Unbelievable set-up. A lot of thought and work went into Locust Grove. It may be as close to "turn-key" as a place can get, but that wasn't by accident. It took tremendous dedication and effort to achieve. The blind we hunted is known as "Heaven" and sits next to a pond they created in the middle of some woods. The blind has become famous on social media and is recognizable by the mallard mural (Sistine Chapel-esque) Aaron McCauley and his father painted on the ceiling. The pond is situated on a known flyway between refuges and ducks passing overhead can't resist the urge to take a breather. They created a magnificent duck hole in a spot nobody had ever shot a duck. Think about that... After the hunt Mark showed us around town a bit where we stopped for a photo-op with the world's largest Canada Goose.
View attachment IMG_3358.JPG
View attachment IMG_3348.jpg
View attachment IMG_3350.jpg
View attachment IMG_3361.JPG
View attachment IMG_3353.jpg
Day two saw us back at Mark's farm near Booneville, MO. Mark's farm sits on the banks of the Missouri River in an area where little duck hunting goes on. Yes, you read that correctly, Mark created duck habitat in an area not known for duck hunting. This area isn't a duck hunting destination like many other places in MO, but Mark recognized the potential of this agricultural land on the banks of the Missouri River and has worked it into a duck and duck hunter paradise, miles from any other hunters. I love that fact. It took a lot of vision and even more sweat, but I've learned Mark is dedicated like few others. And just like the property in Sumner, he has utility power to his ponds to provide and keep water moving. On this day we hunted Mark's timber hole which sits right next to some very large grain fields and tucked up against the Missouri River. Ducks travelled the river and fields all day and I don't think we went more than 20 minutes between flights. Makes the time pass quickly.
View attachment IMG_3363.JPG
On day three Mark decided it was time to hunt his field. Typically he hunts the timber taking ducks that use his field without pressuring the field itself. This late in the season with several thousands geese and ducks making racket all night and day, Mark decided it was time for those birds to "pay the landlord" as he puts it. On this day Mark's son joined us in the afternoon. Cade, a Jr. in high school and a college baseball prospect, immediately impressed me as a fountain of energy and charm. The conversation between him and Thomas about ducks taken in their careers, ducks they still want to take, bands, etc., brought memories flooding back to that age where everything about the sport is new and exciting. We had some really good shooting that day but I think the best part for me was hearing those two talk.
Okay, so I used the term "good shooting". Well, that isn't how anyone else would describe Thomas and I that day, but we all have our good and bad days. Now Mark on the other hand put on a clinic! He has always openly admitted he shoots 6 shot from low brass shells at ducks and touted it's lethality. I'm now a witness to those claims. On more than one occasion Mark waited for both Thomas and I go go to the plug before putting a bead on a hard pumping duck at distance and with one shot getting a cold fold. You might just have to see it firsthand to believe it. The man can shoot.
View attachment DSC_0516.JPG
View attachment DSC_0504.JPG
To Be continued...
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