I can't think of a better way to open my season than a good ole dove hunt and thats what it was. A friend invited me over to his "dove field". This is the most well managed field of sunflowers I've ever hunted over. It was nothing but stalks of well formed, ripe sunflowers over bare dirt surrounded by an electric fence to keep the deer out of them. 10 of us surrounded the field at about 1:30 and the shooting commenced. Doves flew well and really turned on at about 3:30. After putting a decoy up on the wire I and my 20 ga. Benelli Montifeltro commenced into shooting mostly singles and pairs. Thanks to a friend whose dog retrieved a few of my birds that fell into the standing beans, I limited out (15 birds) at 4 pm; just after he limited out. Forgot to mention that there was a slight interruption in the fun as Md's NRP drove up and checked all the hunters. It was fairly pleasant for the ones who had the good looking female officer check them LOL. Two others got their limits; all killed birds and the most important we all had fun.
Family members came in at 5 (when we quit shooting) and started fixing a feast out of this world.
After consuming crabs, burgers, grilled doves and all the "going with ems" and good fellowship and whopping stories my wife and headed home stuffed and tired.
I was invited back to the same field yesterday and turned out to be the sole hunter. The wind at 2:30 was about 20 mph which made for some challenging shooting. Since no one else was gunning I posted up at one of the flyway entries to the field with the 20ga. except I changed from 8 shot to 7 1/2s because of the strong winds.. At 4:30 I racked up after putting 15 on the ground.
Dove hunting is the way I've brought in the last 25 seasons. Its customary for me to pick up the first shot shell and take a big whiff of the burnt powder. I can't think of a better way to bring in the season. Thanks Mr. Landowner for opening up your property to me.
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