Returning from a trip to New Orleans, Katie Burtis and I departed Fort Smith, AR targeting an area from Joplin, MO to Nevada, MO. Met up with Blair and Leighton in Nevada as weak convection developed across northern into central MO. We decided to target the southern edge of convection which seemed to be located within the northern surge of theta e advection and the southern portion of the weaker inhibition. We headed east on Hwy 54 to just east of El Dorado Springs, MO observing decent low level structure and a pseudo fault region. We took Hwy 13 south and intercepted the storm as it crossed between Collins and Humansville. We observed 0.5” to 0.88” hail with a few as large as 1” in diameter as the core overtook our position. We left the storm thereafter, unwilling to fight the darkness and increasingly poor terrain.