Opening Day

[Timothy]

I don't know about doves but we have no bag limit on crows.

Good luck guys, slinging lead can't be a hard day where ever you are!

 

[JC5123]

Yeah, but in Texas we don't shoot them on the ground TAB. Seriously, a South Texas white wing is hauling ass. For a good dove shoot, you need three things.
1: an attractor, such as a gravel pit, stock tank or harvested field
2; enough, but not too many, shooters to keep them moving but not scare them off
3: doves, and lots of them.
Getting those three things, in the right proportions, is a the tricky part. Doubly so on public land. In Texas, at least in the '90s, it was doable with a little planning. As far as 10 birds with 13 shots? Due respect, but if you bag a dozen hard flying white wing doves with more than a few shells left in your box of 25, you are a better man than I am Gungadin, and I am no slouch.
FQ13 who fondly remembers thinking that buying 5 cases of ammo for practice in August, and another mixed five for bird season (dove, quail, ducks and geese stretching from September to January) was being conservative. Sigh. God bless Texas, where I could and did hunt every spare hour I could beg, borrow or steal for five months straight. Gee, wonder why I never managed to bag a wife. Oh yeah, fishing season.

I didn't think there WAS any public land in Texas? 

[Texas_Bryan]

I didn't think there WAS any public land in Texas? 

There's quite abit actually.  But if your a half way sociable person, you have no problem finding a place to hunt, I've never wanted for one.

[fightingquaker13]

I didn't think there WAS any public land in Texas? 

That's the one thing I don't like about the state. I'm all in favor of the free market, but...... If the people want a collective good and are willing to pay a user fee for it, not a general tax, but a permit fee, we ought to be able to play too. I couldn't afford a $2500 plus a year deer lease, but I could have sprung for a $100 WMA fee. So would most Tx. hunters. Sad to say, it is rare and if you find a good WMA, you were damn cagy about it. They were great for water fowl, iffy for dove, but deer and quail? You needed to know what you were doing to hunt on public land. They should, and started to in the late '90s, adopt the Ks. Model. Here, the state took out the lease on private land and let X number of hunters in per day. That works.
On an interesting historical note,the reason there is so little public land is because Tx. was an independent nation before joining the union. There weren't broad tracts of land the feds laid claim to before terrories became states as is the case in much of the west. That's only part of the story, but it does indicate part of the reason you can't swing a (long tailed) cat in Wy. without hitting a National Forest and they are scarce on the ground in TX.
FQ13

[1Buckshot]

OK! So I'm the lucky one. I found a wife that loves to go hunting with me. She loves to hunt deer and elk. She also will get up and go duck hunting early in the morning and a pheasant walk on a nice fall morning just to watch the dog work is always a pleasure. Speaking of the dog  . I made the mistake of leaving the dog home one day as we were just hunting deer close to home. I guess I should have left the shotgun home as I spied some ducks on a pond. Yes I got one but with the mud and all, the wife decided to retrieve it for me, She walked out there just fine, the only problem is she stopped to pick it up. Yes she started to sink.  I yelled to her to keep moving so she made a quick turn and you guest it, she turned but her feet stuck. She feel right on her face in the MUD .   After I stopped laughing I took my life in my hands or should I say feet and went to rescue her. We both made it out alive, she was just a lot muddier than I was and yes we are still married after 15 years more. We just ALWAYS take the DOG with when we go hunting.
All most forgot. Tomorrow I'm hunting Hungarian Partridge and next week a day out for Grouse and on the 15Th bear season opens. Damn I love fall

[Sponsor]

[m25operator]

Good luck Bryan, I now take the time to pluck feathers on doves instead of just breasting them, I pluck them and use good scissors to cut off the wings, and feet,  then up the back bone, remove backbone with scissors, insert scissors and remove entrails, if your lucky, you get the bonus, the heart stays attached to the breast bone, marinate in italian oil and vinegar dressing and cook on the barbie, the skin keeps them from drying out, peppers and bacon always welcome. Dove and dumplings are wonderful on a cold day.

Here is a cool tip on freezing, I always use salt water to freeze, to prevent freezer burn, pack in zip lock bag, but freeze it in a square pan, once it is frozen the bags pack and stack like bricks. Originally it was done in case the bag opened and prevented them from leaking all over the freezer, but bonus.

[fightingquaker13]

Good luck Bryan, I now take the time to pluck feathers on doves instead of just breasting them, I pluck them and use good scissors to cut off the wings, and feet,  then up the back bone, remove backbone with scissors, insert scissors and remove entrails, if your lucky, you get the bonus, the heart stays attached to the breast bone, marinate in italian oil and vinegar dressing and cook on the barbie, the skin keeps them from drying out, peppers and bacon always welcome. Dove and dumplings are wonderful on a cold day.

Here is a cool tip on freezing, I always use salt water to freeze, to prevent freezer burn, pack in zip lock bag, but freeze it in a square pan, once it is frozen the bags pack and stack like bricks. Originally it was done in case the bag opened and prevented them from leaking all over the freezer, but bonus.

I'll do you one better. Ziplock, for about $10, has a battery powered vacuum pump. They make special (and over priced) freezer bags to go with that have a valve (like the "space bags to compress clothes). Still, wrap your meat in saran wrap, put it in the ziplock and suck the air out. Bang, you have a vacuum seal. Zero freezer burn and no water around the meat. Its the same as the frozen stuff you get in the store from Perdue etc.. Best $10, plus a few AAs, you'll ever spend. I've been using this for years and it works. No BS.
FQ13

[Texas_Bryan]

Didn't quite limit out, but didn't do to bad on my shooting.  I got pretty selective on my shots for a while and didn't go too crazy.  Lost two birds in the brush, which is hella annoying, but the critters will eat well.  Hope everyone else had a safe and fun day.

[tt11758]

Gee, wonder why I never managed to bag a wife.

Naw..........it's just too easy.   

[ratcatcher55]

When I grew up in SE PA you wanted a field with lots of foxtail growing in it. The weedier the better.

We alway barbequed the doves that night on a grill or habachi with some BBQ sauce. Bread and butter pickles, corn and ice tea.
No sweet tea that far north.  Cleaning them was two finger under the breast bone and pull the breast off the bird. Rinse under a hose. Pad dry.  Took less time to do than write about.

The area got built up and some hunts ended up with some knucklehead calling the police because they heard shooting, on good days lots of it  .

The Sgt would come out, mouch a soda and either a sausage sandwich or a couple of dove breasts.  He would hide out for 15 minutes and then tell us to be safe. 

One knucklehead drove up and started to scream at us for shooting his house a mile away with our rifles.  Sgt. C ended up explaining the law to him and informing said knucklehead that:

1) We were legal and safe. We had shotguns and birdshot. We could not hit his house if we tried. Folks had hunted on that farm for decades.
2) He was tresspassing
3) Disrupting a hunt was a crime in PA.
4) Folks hunt in this county and maybe he should move back to where ever.

Sgt C ended up Chief C and was a pretty stand up guy his whole life.

Have fun, I'm jealous.