Dove Season is Upon Us.
I went hunting this morning.
Yesterday Zeisloft and myself spent a couple hours in the afternoon driving around looking for the public access properties. We couldn't find any signage for the little brazos property but where it appeared to be there was no sign of any birds. We drove into mumford and got some guy that was around 100 yrs old to show us where Wallin Road was. This property seemed to be better than the other although we saw only a few birds at the north end of the property near a gravel road, roosting trees, a power line, and a harvested corn field
I drove out to the public hunting properties on highway 50 shortly before dawn. I saw a truck driving back to the the Little Brazos property so I headed out to Wallin Road.
I got out there while it was still dark. But I could tell there was still dust up in the air on the road, someone had just barely beaten me to the hunting spot. I got out to the property and I was pleased to see there was only 1 other vehicle there and they had set up at the extreme south end. The temperature was a very pleasant 67 degrees and there was a very heavy dew on the ground that would later make walking though the tall grass soak me up to the knees.
As I began to slide shells into my gun I realized that I hadn't even checked for a plug that morning. Sure enough there was none in. The last thing I wanted to do was go hunting on public property on opening day with an illegal un-plugged shotgun. I found a relatively straight stick, used my knife to wittle it even straighter and broke it to about the right size. I took my gun apart, inserted the new plug and checked it, sure enough it was just the right size to allow only two shells in the magazine. I hunted until the sun came up. I sat for a long time without hearing or seeing anything except a racoon and a bunch of scissor tails and other tweety birds. I got up and walked around a bit and the only dove I saw the whole morning totally surprised me so I missed him. I did show some restraint however and only wasted one shotshell.
I eventually gave up and on my way home I stopped into the little brazos property to see if their luck had been any better. There were approx. 10 automobiles parked there and I could see people sitting all over the place. A game warden was there in the parking lot talking to a fella so I stopped in and asked about their luck that morning. Warden attested that he had been there since 5:00 that there had been very few dove in the air but 10 to 15 shots fired and about 4 dead birds.
Yesterday Zeisloft and myself spent a couple hours in the afternoon driving around looking for the public access properties. We couldn't find any signage for the little brazos property but where it appeared to be there was no sign of any birds. We drove into mumford and got some guy that was around 100 yrs old to show us where Wallin Road was. This property seemed to be better than the other although we saw only a few birds at the north end of the property near a gravel road, roosting trees, a power line, and a harvested corn field
I drove out to the public hunting properties on highway 50 shortly before dawn. I saw a truck driving back to the the Little Brazos property so I headed out to Wallin Road.
I got out there while it was still dark. But I could tell there was still dust up in the air on the road, someone had just barely beaten me to the hunting spot. I got out to the property and I was pleased to see there was only 1 other vehicle there and they had set up at the extreme south end. The temperature was a very pleasant 67 degrees and there was a very heavy dew on the ground that would later make walking though the tall grass soak me up to the knees.
As I began to slide shells into my gun I realized that I hadn't even checked for a plug that morning. Sure enough there was none in. The last thing I wanted to do was go hunting on public property on opening day with an illegal un-plugged shotgun. I found a relatively straight stick, used my knife to wittle it even straighter and broke it to about the right size. I took my gun apart, inserted the new plug and checked it, sure enough it was just the right size to allow only two shells in the magazine. I hunted until the sun came up. I sat for a long time without hearing or seeing anything except a racoon and a bunch of scissor tails and other tweety birds. I got up and walked around a bit and the only dove I saw the whole morning totally surprised me so I missed him. I did show some restraint however and only wasted one shotshell.
I eventually gave up and on my way home I stopped into the little brazos property to see if their luck had been any better. There were approx. 10 automobiles parked there and I could see people sitting all over the place. A game warden was there in the parking lot talking to a fella so I stopped in and asked about their luck that morning. Warden attested that he had been there since 5:00 that there had been very few dove in the air but 10 to 15 shots fired and about 4 dead birds.
posted by steven-hoffman | 1:07 PM
2 Comments:
Thats just like I remembered it.
There were always more people hunting the brazos river spot and there weren't any doves on the other lease.
Making a plug was a good idea. There wan an article in yesterday's chronicle saying that was the most common violation. I also have been stopped by a warden out there.
As might be expected on the Little Brazos public property there appeared to be dove activity in the proximity of all three ponds.
Dove are refuted to move to sources of water in the mid-afternoon, making this property more suitable for evening hunts.
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