Get Out In The Field

Don't be a sluggard. Get up early and hunt some dove; you never know, you might even get some birds.

The Beach

Well, they weren't flying this morning as the sun was coming up over the fields, but I did shoot at one as it flew over The Beach.

The bird seemed to go down in a tree, which was surrounded by impenetrable thorns, so I couldn't get at it. Then again, the avian acrobat could've dodged the shot and flown off into the sunrise.

As always, great to get out in the field.

Mind how you go,

LSP

Dove Hunt

There's been a lot of horse lately, but not much gun. So loaded a shotgun in the truck and went in search of a more balanced life.

This meant walking the treelines in search of dove, and the method's simple, if not easy. Walk up on a tree with dove in it, and when they fly out of the tree like Exocet missiles, shoot them. At first there were no doves, although there were spiders.

Then the avian acrobats burst out of a tree! One round off, no birds down, and in fairness to me they were going fast at the outer limits of my range. So I headed over to a dried-up creek and hunkered down for a bit, listening to someone making a rabbit distress call somewhere off to my left, in the brush. For the benefit of coyotes, probably.

After shooting a snake, I climbed out of the creek bed and headed towards a small clump of trees. If I was a dove, would I be in those trees? I asked myself, and figured yes, I would be. Sure enough they were, and exploded out of the tree as I got up on it. Big excitement, shots were fired, adrenaline up, and another miss. 

Berating myself for being slow off the mark, I walked back to my starting point and chased a few birds along the trees, but didn't get a shot in the autumnal 100 degree weather.

So. LSP 0, Dove 1.

This isn't over.

LSP

Dove Mojo

Dove season's over, at least until December, and most weeks I've been able to get out in the field against the  avian acrobats. The result? An awful lot of sound and shotgun fury along with a small but steady stream of birds for the frying pan or grill.

Tasty

In previous years I'd beat the treelines and fields hoping to surprise the feathered adversaries and shoot them as they broke cover. There's an excitement in that; you hear the birds feeding and move in their direction, senses sharp, then bang, they explode from cover and bang, off goes the gun. Sometimes you get a hit and there's a bird or two for the bag. But more often than not they have your measure and fly before you're in range.

Mojo

This year involved a bit of that but the focus was on the set up. Conceal yourself in a likely place and wait for the dove to fly in. GWB introduced a Mojo decoy, which is a plastic dove on a spike with battery powered wings. I was skeptical. Surely the keen eyed birds would scorn the fakey lure. Not a bit of it. They'd fly straight in, dive bombing the Mojo, leaving you to break cover and snap off a shot.

But remember, if the birds see you skulking about the Mojo they won't take the bait.

Just sayin'.

LSP