Free weekend workshops aim at teaching women, teens hunting skills

Ruth Powers grew up hunting with her dad in northern Iowa.

Though the Jackson woman continued hunting as an adult, mostly for deer, she said hitting moving targets is the toughest.

"If they're not standing still, I'm afraid to take a shot. I don't want to wound it and have to track it or leave it to die in the woods. That's not my idea of fun," she said.

Shooting on the wing is one skill she hopes to improve Sunday at the first day of a two-part waterfowl hunting workshop at the Duck Creek Conservation Area in Puxico, Mo.

The workshop, offered by Missouri Department of Conservation's Missouri's Outdoor Women program, covers waterfowl history and biology, with a hands-on approach to hunting equipment and techniques. The second part of the workshop will be in December, when participants return for a guided hunt.

The free workshop is one of two this weekend, according to Dee Dee Dockins, outdoor skills specialist for the Department of Conservation.

On Saturday, instructors at Duck Creek will help 11- to 15-year-olds, accompanied by an adult, learn waterfowl identification, habitat, target patterning, distance estimation, decoy setup and equipment selection.

ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.com A finished product of a mounted duck hangs on the wall at Bruce Scheeter's Showcase Taxidermy Studio in south Cape Girardeau County.

"Our clinic is unique in that we spend all day in hands-on sessions and we teach the young hunters the skills to become successful, responsible and ethical hunters," Dockins said. "Ethics is a key concept. It means we don't shoot what we don't eat. We don't shoot what we can't retrieve."

Dockins, an avid hunter, is excited about the women's workshop, which is aimed at helping women of all skill levels.

She said some women will be looking for a creative strategy to help them move the equipment; others simply want to learn without feeling embarrassed, how to choose the right equipment.

The women's waterfowl workshop is one of three state-sponsored clinics. A rabbit hunting with beagles class runs in February; a turkey hunting clinic is held in March.

Bruce Scheeter, a duck hunter and owner of Showcase Taxidermy Studio near Dutchtown, said Southeast Missouri is gaining a reputation for good waterfowl hunting. He rattles off a handful of hunting hot spots: at such places as Puxico's Duck Creek, Otter Slough southwest of Dexter, Mo., Ten Mile Pond southeast of Charleston and MO Ducks in Bernie, Mo.

While acknowledging that Stuttgart, Ark., the self-proclaimed duck capital of the world and nearly 300 miles from Cape Girardeau, is probably the mecca, "Southeast Missouri is coming close to that, because of the amount of farmers and wetland programs being offered."

The Bootheel's level land and low elevation make it perfect for the grain crops ducks love. Farmers create a haven by periodically flooding the land, according to Scott Crumpecker, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service coordinator for the Bootheel Resource Conservation & Development Council Inc. in Dexter. He said conservation programs dating back to 1977 have helped farmers create fee-hunting operations, or what he calls "agritourism in Southeast Missouri."

There have been bumps along the way, he said. One group wanted to promote waterfowl hunting near Benton, Mo., by posting signs saying "The duck stops here" but couldn't get funding.

Scheeter and Crumpecker said duck hunting is a particularly social sport.

"A man once told me more business deals are made in a duck blind than there is in a conference room," Crumpecker said, laughing. "I think there's some truth in that."

As a duck hunter himself, Crumpecker said he likes to bring newcomers to his 20-foot-long pit. There are times he doesn't even bring a gun.

"It's not always about the kill. People don't measure their successes in the amount of kills. They might measure it in what they saw, the unique things," he said, recalling a moment of watching seven wild turkeys strutting single-file along a levee. "If a duck had shown up at that moment, it would have been perfectly safe."

But fun is not the only effect of waterfowl hunting. Stuttgart makes millions off hunters who buy meals, licenses, souvenirs, shotgun shells and equipment, Crumpecker said. He said Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Kennett will likely benefit from a robust waterfowl hunting environment.

To learn more about programs, call the Department of Conservation at 573-290-5730. For complete waterfowl season information, visit www.mdc.mo.gov/hunt/wtrfowl/info/seasons/index.htm.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127