I missed the opener yesterday, but I got out tonite around 5. I got 10 over my sunflowers. My 16 ga. Vh 1 frame did well.

Peter:

Our opening day in Georgia is tomorrow, September 4, at high noon. The excitement always builds since this is not just a dove shoot but a social event as well. However this year it will be really something for us since I will have 3 of my 4 grandsons shooting with me in the same dove field and I can imagine the conversation when the day is done. Memories for a lifetime..

Glad you got to watch your son shoot and you know he will remember that shoot for a lifetime. By the way, three boxes, 75 shells for 14 dove is not bad at all for your first hunt. Hope the shoulder gets better soon. I warmed up yesterday, just for grins on a 20 gauge Beretta 391 semi-auto, with virtually no recoil. You might consider it. Opening day I will be shooting my Parker 20 gauge, DHE Reproduction which I dearly love shooting.

I am thinking of doing that Jeff.
As soon as I have a little extra cash, I intend
to order 3 or 4 more boxes of brass.
Be kinda cool having a few boxes of 2" brass shotshells. :)

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../Sept42010.jpg


Epilogue: At dawn I was standing along an irrigation system in 200 acre freshly picked corn, a cool breeze from the north, temps in the mid-50’s and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect! Took three before the birds stopped moving. Moved to another field and took two more before moving again. That third field was probably 300 acres next to a grain elevator. Every time a grain truck drove back to the elevator flocks of birds flew over the field. It was crazy – took ten more birds and limited out about 1030. I really did not expect the hundreds of acres of picked corn fields nor did I expect to be sitting on a bucket in the middle of fields with no cover, whatsoever. Everyone else was shooting 12’s but did not feel under gunned with my tightly choked 20 (.041/.042) DHE. Probably better to have too much choke than too little when shooting on windy open fields. The LOP is a little short for me so it took a some time for me to get into the groove but when I did birds fell.

When we wrapped up we walked back to the truck. Ten guys, camo t-shirts, camo cargo pants and camo ball caps. Plenty of chew, ever one of them had that southern Indiana “twang”. Farmers, a local doctor, a judge, three engineers and me; a slice of Americana and there was something very right about it. No one stood out, you couldn’t pick out who was who. I really enjoyed being there.

In time I’ll probably forget most of the details from the hunt, but I doubt I forget the sunrise. Born and raised in Indiana, I’ll always feel at home watching the sun rise (or set) over a cornfield and the company of a good friend or two.

Cheers,

JDG