THANKSGIVING DAY DOVE HUNT

[J. A. EARLY]

I had multiple choices today. Deer being run everywhere by dogs, thousands of geese in town, but the doves are my favorite. I took my fourteen year old hunting protégé with me, convincing him we would be home early for his Thanksgiving family gathering.

I took my best dove killer, a refurbished Trojan that is choked cylinder and light modified. The reason I like it is that I can shoot any shell I want in it, today shooting 1 1/8 ounce factory Federals. I set my buddy under the power pole with two decoys and I got about thirty yards away in a hay bale blind. Man they came in like gang busters thirty minutes after daybreak. He was shooting his dad's old A5 with a full choke. When the smoke cleared we had twenty-four birds out of a thirty bird limit. We had no clue we had downed that many until we started picking them up. Obviously there were quite a few missed birds! A day he will never forget in his young life. I won't either.