Friday afternoon in south Texas

[David Noble]

My boys and I always go to my cousins place in Coahoma Tx to dove hunt. We’ve been going for years and always have a great time visiting and hunting. We waited a few days to go this time because it was so hot on opening day and my cousin wasn’t seeing much dove activity. We pulled up at his house about 2:30 in the afternoon Friday and after some quick hugs and hellos we got our guns and headed for the field. They dropped me off on the corner of the field and they drove on to the other end of the field. I loaded my DH 20ga and stepped into the field. Three steps in and the first dove came flying in right over the trees and into the open field. I dropped that one quickly and while scurrying out to pick it up another entered the field. I was reloading the right barrel when I saw it and got the gun up just in time to drop it also. Before I could get reloaded two birds over and I got the first but missed the second. And while I was picking up the last bird I dropped I saw another coming from the left. I had to reload quickly and got a shot at him just as he passed over head. That was four birds down with 5 shots and all in less than two minutes. I was huffing and puffing from all the excitement and exercise and was hoping I’d get a chance to recover before another swarm like that came in. I got a short break but the birds continued to come over the field and I was able to finish my 15 bird limit in a total of thirty five minutes. My DH 20 has original 27 inch barrels choked imp/cyl and imp/modified and was restocked by the previous owner to dimensions that fit me really well. I finished with 15 birds with 41 shells fired, an average of less than 3 rds a bird. That’s the best I’ve done in several years! The group of six
hunters ended up with 79 birds.