2011 Dove Season Begins

[Hunterjohnny]

Well it was a great opening morning for dove season. We saw lots of birds and had a blast. We tried something totaly new to us. Skipped all the agricultural areas and hit the desert. Not the same volume but man it was still good shooting. The planets lined up and was able to get my son and daughter to come out which was worth it alone. Anyone thinking about this shoud try it. Water is they key and they realy didnt start flying until about an hour after sunrise. You could sleep in. They were still coming in at 9 when we left but dang it was getting hot and I had my fill. I amazed everyone with my shootins skills this year. Dang birds were so close they were hitting my gun and thowing my aim off.. Just couldnt adjust to this today (old dog new tricks).

(no pictures, thats how I roll)

 

Hope eveyone had as much luck and fun!

[DUG]

We found a whitewing hotspot this year. It was nice not having to stop at 6. Ended up 11 for 34 with the 28 ga. pump. Shot 1 high flying Eurasian about 50 yds. up. Going back out tomorrow.

[Guest akaspecials]

We didn't get out till about 6:45pm cause my hunting partner realized he forgot to get a bird stamp about 10 minutes from our spot... Still got 3 birds in our 30 minutes out though. We were by saguaro lake. Did anyone else notice that there were a lot of quail this year? We saw at least 10 coveys with upwards of 30 birds.

[tjhunt2]

This season started awesome with lots of birds finally flying about 8am. You couldn't load fast enough. My dog, Lexie tore a piece out of her pad and won't be able to hunt her for a week maybe. What a bummer after waiting all year for this. The evening flight was hot and heavy. Good luck to everyone.

 

TJ

[AZbowhntr]

Well I had to work early yesterday morning so I couldn't make the opener but we went out this morning and I am sitting here in my office posting at 7:55 am after shooting my limit. They were flying better when we left than when we showed up. Could have slept in an extra hour with no problem. It sure is nice having friends with private property so we didn't have to worry about anyone peppering us or anything. Good times.

[Hunterjohnny]

Almost forgot this picture. This scorpian was huge, and yes that is a tarantula he killed and was hauling around!

[srfrost45]

Glad to hear your kids were able to go. I cant wait for my boys to be old enough. We had a group of 8 and we all limited out in 45 mins. It was a good time. We tried a new spot and it was great but the birds were small compared to last year. My Choc lab had a blast and did great and caught some birds out of mid air after being winged. I sure do like to see him work. He kept bringing everyones birds back to me. I only had to get out of my chair a few times! Great day.

[Perkele!]

So far 18 years in a row I managed not to miss the opening day.

 

I was up at 3:30, gear and truck was readied up from the night before.

I have found a small case of 12s that was left unused from 2010 that I didn't remember putting on the shelf in the garage, yet again I rarely remember where I put what in the garage. I said to myself "Self... why did you leave a case of 12s in the garage ?" Anyways, I opened the case, there were 4 boxes all seemed unopened. I added the case to the ammo box where I had the rest of the 12s and headed out to my usual spot. A big mug of coffee, 3 ciggies and 65 miles later I was there. Nobody has showed up yet. Poured myself another mug of coffe, opened the chair, and started waiting. About 15 minutes before sun up the place turned in to a zoo.

 

I opened the box of shells, oooooops, remember the small case ? Well, turns out two of the boxes were willed with empties. In the ammo box I had pheasant shots and some lose 7 1/2 shots and a few 8s. Cursing at my stupidity I loaded the shotgun with 7 1/2 light loads.

 

Before I could get a shot at the first flight, I got peppered by two idiots who were to my left, after a few choice words they agreed not to shoot at me. Birds were flying constant but high for my light loads. After 3 misses I decided to change the choke which helped a little but I wasn't happy. The first shot found the bird, feathers all over but the bird gave me a finger and kept on flying, follow up shot thought the bird who was boss. I knew right hen and there that I was gonna have to do a lot of follow up shots with the crappy loads I had. Birds 1 through 7 all took double shots, frustrating but acceptable. Bird # 8 needed a third shot and fell in to the mesquite bush. Going over the barbed wire in to the mesquite thicket was a scratcher but I wasn't about to leave a bird there, bending and contorting my 6'5" frame trying to reduce the number of scratches I started looking for the bird, 10 feet from me was the bird, as I approached it I heard that unnerving noise we all know too well. Between me and the bird, under a tree was this rattler, coiled up about the size of a medium pizze, with his neck up cocked and locked ready to attack. I said "Snake, have a nice bird on me" and skidaddled out of there. Now if I haven't emptied the gun on that stupid bird and if I wasn't less than 3 feet from the snake and if I had confidence that I could load the gun faster than the rattler can strike I would have duked it out with the snake, not this time.

 

I got limit in about an hour and a half cleaned the birds and headed home.

 

I breasted and milk soaked the doves within 15 minutes of getting home. After about an hour of soaking, I pan fried them in bacon fat with Herbes De Province and a pinch of cumin. Packed the birds and the wild rice for lunch and late snack and headed for work.

 

Lessons learned;

 

My old Honey Hole ain't no longer a secret.

Check your shells ahead of time you dummy.

If the people hunting around you look like highschool kids, give them a wide berth.

Load up the gun before chasing after a bird.