After a week of turkey hunting in Arkansas, things are looking good - but not great.

Arkansas 2013-14 deer hunting seasons Archery ˆ All zones: Sept. 28-Feb. 28. Modern Gun - Zones 1, 1A, 2, 3, 6, 6A, 7, 8, 8A, 10 and 11:  Nov. 9-Dec. 1.  Zone 4: Nov. 9-10.  Zone 5: Nov. 9-10 and Nov. 16-17. Zones 4A, 5A, 14 and 15: Nov. 9-Dec. 8. Zones 4B and 5B: Nov. 9-17. Zones 9,...

LITTLE ROCK - The weather is warming, official spring is approaching, and many Arkansans are getting into fishing mode. This is a time when state record fish are often landed.

"Obama is going to take your guns away." That is today's scare message, the 2013 version of Chicken Little hollering, "The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

Duck hunting has a while to run in Arkansas, then thousands of waterfowlers in the state will buy had things up until next fall. Many will take old hunting stamps out of their wallets, and just a few will pay attention to these.

At a Christmas gathering, a relative displayed a deer rifle he had just acquired. It was nice looking. The rifle had a variable power telescopic sight, and it was chambered for the .25-06 cartridge, an excellent deer load.

Next time we are going to do better. We are going to be more prepared. Yes, we knew this winter storm was coming, or we should have known, and we weren't ready when the power went out.

Arkansans, or many of us at least, are well aware of the potential of good eating that is in our outdoors - deer, squirrel, rabbits, ducks, geese and more. This is in addition to an appealing variety of fish. And there are feral hogs, many of them.

Were the "good ol' days" of deer hunting really good? No, not in numbers of deer killed by hunters, but David Taylor Hyatt of Monticello points out a number of differences and changes in deer hunting in southeastern Arkansas over the years.

This has been a fine deer season in Arkansas, likely the best ever in numbers. Hunter Lieblong has done his part. Hunter is a 7-year-old who lives in Conway. Yes, his first name is appropriate.