I always say that if you make several dove hunts in the fall, then you will miss fewer ducks in the winter. Doves can be unpredictable in their flight path and hitting them requires skill and instinct.
Dove season began over Labor Day weekend and Mr. Cullen Bryant put a dove hunt together for Saturday afternoon. We met at his shop around noon where Mr. Cullen blessed the food and we ate chicken, beans, rice, deer sausage, and boiled peanuts.
After lunch, the group spread out across the fields and started shooting. Friday’s storm was hard on the sunflowers but some remained standing, and we had some good action shooting at the doves. Most September dove hunts are unbearably hot, but yesterday’s storm had cooled it to a comfortable 80 degrees.
Ryan Stephens sat with Jared Darmon near some corn stalks that were left standing. It sounded like an anti aircraft battery when a bird flew near them, and few doves escaped. Bethae Vincent was between us with his black lab, Koda. Koda was running all over the field sniffing for doves that we had shot. It is important to watch where a dove lands because they can be hard to find in the corn and soy beans.
Dawson Jordan and my little sister’s friend, Luke, sat near me and were laughing and cutting up the whole time. This was Luke’s first time hunting and he alternated between sitting with me and Dawson. Luke seemed to have a great time even though he didn’t shoot any doves.
Even though I am constantly looking around, doves still manage to pop up out of nowhere and surprise me. Sometimes, these shots just happen out of instinct and are hits. I am led to believe that those shots where I have plenty of time to watch the bird approaching are the easiest shots to miss because I over think when aiming. My remedy for this is to refrain from raising the sights to my eye until the bird is in range. This advice has helped tremendously to improve accuracy.
Everybody on the dove field wants to see other hunters having successful hunts, and we were always calling out birds to each other. A shadow passed over me and I looked up to see a dove about to escape. I pointed the gun as I pivoted and fell off of my chair. Brushing off the dirt, I glanced around to be sure that nobody was looking, but Bethea Vincent was laughing.
The crowd was getting thin and I stayed a bit later to get my limit. Ryan gave some of his birds to me so that we could have a cookout later on. As I was leaving, I asked Bethea about how many he shot. He told me that he had 11 doves and fired 11 shots. I’ll let you decide if that was the truth.