Texas dove opening day hunt

[crs]

Texas dove season opened Thursday and 14 DWWC members welcomed it in out at Rule. Mourning doves till 8 am and then hundreds if not thousands of white wings flying in flocks of from 30 to 100 at altitudes up to 50 yards and higher. They would not land in half mile square grain fields and just flew around the area. Lots of ammo burned and lots of folks shot their limits, but I shot a few Eurasian Ring neck doves(not a gamebird and do not count toward dove limit) and took a nap. That evening, I filled out my 15 bird mourning dove limit over a water hole near the Paradise Lodge just before dark; using my 12 ga Parker Repro, the shooting was fast and fun.

Yesterday morning, the white wings were flying lower and we shot a bunch but only a few of us made the 15 bird limit.

Lots of good food, toddies and cigars, and hunting tales. We closed out the hunt at noon with a 21 gun salute to a recently deceased member and twice DWWC president. We thought it appropriate as he ran the club dove hunts for decades.
A friend and an outing to remember.