Went out this morning to look for teal and hoping to photograph same. Didn't find any teal. Headed back to the house around 10:30.

Opened the mail box and found a copy of "Take-em".

(If you haven't heard about "Take-em" go here http://www.cafeoutdoors.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=245828&an=0&page=0#245828 )

Put the gear away and poured a cup of coffee and began to read the first issue.

The "Welcome to Something New" statement written by Scout was a well composed,straight to the point outline of what the magazine was all about and set the tone for a down to earth duck hunter's magazine.

A couple of highlights....

Op-Ed article about Quick Draw with well researched stats and facts

and

A big two page article by Swampy about decoy carving. I liked the picture of the "carvers murderers row" and it showed Swampy with an old school Merg and a killer Avocet.

Bonus page of photographs and memories featured a lot of young hunters showing off what they killed--Most of the pictures were taken by proud parents.

There was a photo of Herschbach's first can decoys and a limit of blue wings from a Texas playa hunt--

that page sets the tone for the upcoming duck season by recalling memories of seasons past

I think the article on shooting like a duck gawd had a more than a bit of tongue in cheek since it was written by "Grits Brister" (old school shotgun writers) but it still had some good advice as to when to "Take-em".

Read a story about a disappearing duck that makes a good case for the old saying...

all duck hunters are liars but thee and me and sometime I wonder about thee

Found a couple of companies that had some gear that I might spend a few $$'s on before big duck season gets here.

I also found the quotes from some of the classic and not so classic

duck hunting writers at the bottom of each page entertaining.

All in all---

not a bad dealio.

not bad at all