September 1st Doves

[GH-16]

Hi all!

I'm just heading out the door to drive to dove camp. This will be a big year for my group being as we will be spending our 20th year meeting at the same place & hunting on the same landowners. We have seen a lot of changes over the years. Our group started out as all adults, then some of the guys kids joined us as they got old enough. Now those kids are young adults & are either going to college or working.

On the farm side we've watched entire sections of ground enrolled & planted into the CRP program. Now we are seeing the last of those contracts expire & farmed again.

I'm taking two Parkers and a Winchester model 1912 with me this year. All the guns are 20ga. The Parkers are Remington era guns a VHE single trigger beavertail w/vent rib 26", the other a VHE double trigger pistol grip splinter 28" The 1912 is a 25" barreled solid rib gun with knock out wood.

Got to hit the road now, I'll report back when I get home.

Good luck to all of My PGCA brothers who will be starting their seasons tomorrow also.

Yee Haa it's hunting season again

[John Allen]

The hurricane has delayed our opener.The rains and remnants of Harvey have pushed our birds out.We hope to be able to shoot by the 3rd or 4th.Still a very small thing compared to what our Texas friends have gone through.Keep them in your thoughts.

[OH Osthaus]

the doves were dumping into the fresh cut wheat field on the corner when i went out this afternoon-

of course - we have no season starting tomorrow

but there they are

[charlie cleveland]

rain has pushed our birds out too rain and high winds a dove does not like...we to have been hunting the same ground for50 years our young hunters are grown up and have kids of their own....i am now the oldest hunter in my group at 70 in sept....weve had some good hunts over the years and some terrible ones also but i have enjoyed every single one of them...we have had some great breakfasts and dinners over the years hope to have a good one saturday...hope all of us get to warm up our gun barrels....charlie

[J. A. EARLY]

Things change greatly and I don't think there are nearly the doves that were around in the '70s. We all hunted a 1000 acre farm where the owner invited anyone from the county that wanted to come. He had his farm hands go around the field for the first two swipes cutting silage with the chute not in the wagon but throwing it on the ground. He loved to hunt and to see people hunt. Fifty hunters shooting over fifty rounds each, some shooting over 100 on opening day.

Now owned by NJ refugees who won't let you step a foot on the property without being arrested.

[John Allen]

There are still plenty of birds.Dove hunting is just not the big event it used to be.We used to have country churches or ruritan clubs put on big shoots.$10 a gun and the ladies of the church would provide sandwiches,iced tea, and baked goods.It was a community event.I guess land owners are worried about liability now.

[J. A. EARLY]

[QUOTE=...I guess land owners are worried about liability now.[/QUOTE]

Not down here. All are so anti-hunting and anti-gun that they hate hunters.

The doves used to come to that same farm every year, and all of those around it. All dairy farms are now gone, no silage, only beef cattle grazing on grass and all soybeans in the fields where there used to be corn.

[Robert Brooks]

It is getting worse every year it seems. Bobby

[charlie cleveland]

as long as their is a hunter who likes hunting things will be ok...we still invite every one to our hunt the troble now with hunting is the high cost of fixing food plots and fields for birds and animals around our parts of the country...any way we still are hunting and enjoying it..i sure would have liked going to a church social dove hunting... charlie

[Gary Laudermilch]

I am not so fortunate to live in a dove rich area. It is predominantly big woods with scattered farms in the valleys. Add to that the fact that our game commission does not permit us to manipulate a field for doves and it makes it hard to find good shooting. We start driving about mid-August looking for a field(s) that the birds are working which is usually a cut grain field. Sometimes, like this year, it is particularly difficult. And then, we have to secure permission to hunt the field. It was last Wednesday before it all finally came together. Not the best field we have ever had but still looks good and the neighboring barn roof had 150 pigeons on it to boot. We'll find out later today. Have fun everyone!