Recently I took my close friend and fellow Marine with me back home to Amarillo Texas for the annual family dove hunt and feast, with the amount of rain the panhandle has received this year our family hunting spot turned from a normally incredibly productive place (8 man limit in about 2 hours) with plenty of bonus birds (collared doves and pigeons) to a less than optimal couple morning doves. We believe this to be due to the rain creating food source availability more than normal but I promised my friend a limit and a white wing and I couldn’t let him down especially after a 24 hour drive from Camp Lejeune to TX.
We came upon an opportunity to hunt a large local ranch that has a managed dove field (Texans treat Marines very well) and had an incredible hunt, my friend Allen ran out of shells and thus we were one morning dove shy of a two man limit but we both managed two white wings and plenty of morning doves to make poppers with and they turned out great too.
I thought things couldn’t get any better when my father decided to do something I never expected. He had purchased a Parker repro 28ga straight stock splinter FE several years ago to use as an incentive for me. I was told if I was commissioned as a warrant officer or attained a college degree the gun could be mine but for some reason telling him about a second grand child made him crack
. (He does not shoot Parker’s he’s much more of a 23 classic Winchester guy) so I took the 28ga back home with me but not before taking many doves with it.
My cup overflows.