Dove Season Opener
By Keith Hollar – Guest Contributor
This year I
got the opportunity to go on a dove hunt.
It was me first hunting trip. Part of the reason I started to get into clay
shooting was so I could at least hit something when I went on this hunting
trip.
So after
meeting early in the morning on the day before dove season opened and loading
up the trucks my dad, me and six other guys set out on the about four hour
drive to Parker, Arizona. We arrived at
the vacation house that belongs to the brother of the guy who sets up the trip
every year, Neil, to turn on the air conditioner and unload the vehicles. We wisely decided to wait until the early
evening to go out scouting since the afternoon temperatures were in the low
100’s. We drove out on Indian land and
scouted a couple areas south of Poston, Arizona that evening and made a
decision on where to go the next morning.
At the early
hour of 4:30 a.m., with the temperatures already in the high 80’s, we got on
the road for the almost 45 minute drive to the spot we chose to start the
opening day on. We all spread out into
different areas of the field to try our luck.
As things got light there weren’t that many birds flying around and not
a lot of shotguns going off either. By
the end of our time out hunting that day I only got one bird and I think we
only had 17-18 birds between the 8 of us.
From what the guys who had done this before were telling me, this was
definitely not normal and it was probably the monsoon rains that had come a
couple weeks before and drove the birds off.
On day two
we decided to go to about the same area but to a location that we were getting
some success. We got there early and set
up. I selected a bush that would come to
find out was not the wisest choice.
While I did bring down another two birds, the mosquitoes ate me
alive. I had at least a hundred, and
probably more, bites even though I was wearing long sleeves, pants and bug
spray. It was over a week before they
finally stopped itching. As he
traditionally does Neil made us dinner this second night. Normally he does it on opening day but
because of the low amount of birds we got he had to wait until the second
day. The recipe he chose was a wild
rice, mushroom, celery, white wine and dove casserole. It was pretty good.
The third
and final day we decided to try a completely different location. This was met with about the same results, not
a whole lot. I hardly saw any birds and
only shot at a couple and missed. Over the three days I only shot a little over
a box of shells.
Overall I
had a pretty good time, although I was glad to get home after being out of town
for most of August. I do think it is
something I’d like to do again, although the 100 degree weather was a little
tiring. Maybe next year I’ll try my hand
at quail.
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