Weekend Visit from the Protégé

Well, this weekend Michael Parker decided he wanted to come down to Ames for a visit and to just hang out. I figured I would have no issues finding things to do.
Friday afternoon I took a quick visit to the doc office to check out a possible sinus infection. Thankfully, a quick visit, stayed a quick visit and I was able to get some meds. Micheal walked in the door and pork steaks and a flat iron steak for Rachel went on the grill. It was a wonderful evening just hanging out and being well medicated. Rachel said once Michael shows up we can watch hunting shows. More deer stories and hunts to get us jacked than I think I could have handled.

Saturday morning, Nick got us permission to hunt the sacred dove field again, so I took Michael out. I was hoping for an even 10 birds. It was a beautiful cool morning in the mid 40s. We ended up with 2 birds.

Not the most productive morning but the thought of breakfast was just as exciting as shooting birds. We got back to the house and Rachel was going to make is breakfast. We both decided to cook as Mocha was a muddy mess and I would do anything to not give her a bath. Rachel took care of that while I started food. Bacon, and eggs. When Rachel was done with the pup we got pancakes. Doves went in with bacon. A nap ensued.
This last spring Michael and I doubled on jakes and I just couldn't bring myself to separate the birds. Together at death; together forever. I made a fantastic double mount on a cedar slab with the picture epoxy inlay-ed. Each fan is on the respective side of the of the picture.

  This was to be sent off to Michael's own trophy room.
While I had a difficult week I was unable to work on the next deer mount that Michael and I have been talking about for some time. That worked out just fine as we were both able to work on it and it is a buck Michael found this last spring while shed hunting. This gave me an opportunity to practice on a non-harvest deer head. I built and reserved a table for Michael (free of charge; Micheal has done more than enough for me) and we mounted it up.

I have been super excited about this mount for a long time. I always said the best part about finally harvesting a nice buck is grabbing those antlers and gawking over them. My mounts do a great job of showcasing a hunt and experience, but I wanted something that would allow the hunter to enjoy that feeling of holding those antlers again. This mount has two pipes that fit slug one over the other. I put the brass pipe in the skull, and a copper pipe in the table. It pivots so when you want a different angle because you are in a different mood, and want change. Then when you want to pick it up and gawk again, or show it off to a friend, you just pull the head off the table. It just puts another spin on euro and pedestal mounts.

After finishing up this mount Megan, Ryan and Kidlets showed up to 'watch' the Cyclones game with us. Well, because paying an arm and a leg for cable is still not enough for the scum sucking bastards, we did not get the channel the game was on, so we listened to it instead. No matter, my Cyclones got beat anyway.

Sunday morning I was met by cinnamon rolls in the oven. If I haven't said it yet I will say it again, my wife is the greatest. After enjoying those, Michael and I settled ourselves into the man cave to wrap and re-fletch his arrows. His blaze orange camo wraps with orange and white offset fletching looked amazing. The only way to know if they would shoot was to actually shoot them. A couple shots in the basement showed the fletchings held up. A trip to Soper's Mill outside of town showed us they shoot as good as they look. It was nice to fling some arrows again.

After shooting we had to try and find us a smallie. This was the first time I have been able to fish the Skunk River this year. First cast gave me a slab green sunfish that smelled like mud.
The big hole produced nothing.
Micheal finally un-skunked us on the Skunk. Nothing huge but a smallie nevertheless. I finally pulled on in as he was on the opposite bank un-hooking his. Next cast I lost a pounder. I ended up with three total and it was homeward bound.

The best way to cap off the weekend was to come home to a homemade batch of chicken noodle soup made by the loving hands of my wife. Michael and I could smell it when we got out of the car. I have been craving this for a couple of weeks. It was legendary batch, dumplings and all.

I all but bailed on my wife to "play" all weekend. I was blessed by great food and a smile whenever I came up for air. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful wife.



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Another try at Doves

After a short week in Iowa City, ( that felt like a month) for a paver job,

Yesterday, I was able to pull myself together enough to take another shot at doves this season. This time Nick was in Western Iowa with Ethan, and he got me permission to hunt the same field again.

It ended up being my buddy Ned Parker, and another friend Aaron Steffen accompanying me for the morning's hunt. I had told them about our previous hunt out of this field but warned them that this particular morning may be a little slower.
It was almost 40 minutes before we even saw a bird. We were able to finally pull down one. Another flurry came through and we pulled down one or two. A lot more singles and pairs this go around. Finally a flock pulled a loop around Aaron and he let them come around to us. I think we unloaded our guns to have Ned harvest his first true single dove. Had it not been for Mocha, we would have never found that bird in the weedy standing corn. Aaron had only fired a shot after an hour. I sent him to the hayfield with his mojo and pup. I knew he wouldn't mind and would probably stir up some birds in the process.

This proved vital to our success. Ned and I did all kinds of shooting after Aaron stirred up the pot. This was Ned's first dove hunt and he had some difficulties with the little feathered rockets. With that in mind so did I. We each had a small pile of birds and decided to walk around like last time. No birds down and more shots fired.
We pulled a loop and met up with Aaron. He had 11 doves and a bonus pigeon he folded earlier. We walked the remaining loop and decided to call it a day. Before we even got back to our spot Aaron had two more while walking back to the Blazer.

Ned and I counted our birds with Ned's 4 and my 5. Low numbers for two boxes of shells each...
Nevertheless it was an enjoyable morning.

We decided with Aaron's 13 and our 9 we had to complete at least Aaron's limit. We would do this via the grave roads. Iowa law dictates as long as you don't slues them off of the telephone wire, it is legal. We drove all of a quarter mile and Aaron lays on the gas...
Three doves were on the road.

Only two got away.

That makes 14.

We drove a couple miles with the only doves being adjacent to a house. At a farm about 4 miles North of where we started, another flock sat in the road.

Five on the road.

Four fly away.

Again we back up and pick up yet another bird.

That's 15 for Aaron without two shots fired.
I asked that we at least make ten for our birds. I borrowed Ned's gun as we stopped for a slow bird on the wire. Pasted him.
We let Ned try his luck at a few more but that didn't pan out so we called it a day. It turned out to be a productive day with 25 doves and a bonus pigeon.
That evening we enjoyed the fruits of our labor at Aaron's place with cream cheese bacon wrapped dove baked in butter.

With all of this working in the heat, and getting up early I am used and abused. The allergies are killing me and I am weary. Hopefully this abates soon.


Stay tuned

Labor Day Morning

The day after our big shoot, Rachel and I went home to celebrate birthdays and to pick up some stuff from my parents place. This if course gave me another opportunity to hunt doves. This time Michael Parker picked me up at the unholy hour of 4:30am. With the allergies destroying me, I was not at my finest but went anyway. We beat some other guys to the spot by ten minutes. The three guys limited out opening morning in this spot and now we beat them to the punch. We walked in and took the far side of the public field. Over the course of the morning, 8 people lined a 200 yard swath. I was not pleased, but it seemed to work out ok. The only issue I had was controlling the dog. Every time someone shot, she would take off to retrieve their birds. A few times I had to take birds back to guys because they would shoot one, and Mocha would retrieve it to me.....I was rather displeased. I see a shock collar in the near future.

Despite the difficulties, we managed a one man limit between the two of us. There was one point in which Micheal went and dispatched a barking squirrel, which in turn gave me a chance to give him a his first skinning lesson.

We had one bird in particular that was destined to be Michael's. We would rotate birds just to keep it even, but we had one bird fly behind the "firing line" with all of 40 shots fired upon it before it made it's way to us. Michael had the better position on it so I said take him. One shot and poof in the dirt. There were more birds flying so I went to pick up his bird. When I did I saw a tiny aluminum anklet around a leg.
Another banded dove for the kid. He shot two here last year. It was just meant to be and he earned it with a great shot.

As usual, a large breakfast courtesy of Dad awaited us when we got home.



Stay Tuned.

A Taste of Fall

Sunday September 1st marked the opener of dove season for Iowa and I was not about to miss the opportunity. Years past have proven fair as we are new to the dove game, and it has taken some getting used to. This year I was hunting private instead of public in hopes this would alleviate some of the pressure. Nick had a spot lined up through his work involving a mowed weed patch in the middle of a standing cornfield. He mowed it a second time the Friday before and saw tons of birds. We knew this was going to be awesome. After a few flake outs it turned into just the three amigos: Nick, Ethan Shetler, and myself. As it turned out, this was Nick and Ethan's first dove hunt ever! We always seem to get into some sort of mischief when it's the three of us...

Open morning we pull into the field approach and Nick informs us that it is a poke of a walk to our spot so we should strap our stuff on and get moving. 50 yards later we are standing in our patch. A large 360 degree mowed area with a small patch of standing corn in the middle for cover. This spot was juice!
As the sun rose in the East:

A thunderstorm had just passed through which provided a beautiful sunrise.

About 20 minutes passed without a bird. At this point Nick was worried that his guiding had gone awry. One bird came in and Ethan missed by a mile. He was having some consternation about shooting God's birds. With this we were able to convince him otherwise: Genesis 1:26 "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground." This was affective
Within 5 minutes we had a swarm of doves on the mojo decoy.

It was a FIRE-FIGHT!!!

All three guns unloaded and 5 birds on the ground. Bringing Mocha proved vital as she assisted in finding most of the birds.
The next three hours flew by.
We were assaulted by birds all morning. One here. Three there. Another dive-bombing flock here.

 It was sheer torture...ok maybe not.

The only casualty of the day (besides the doves) was Nick's gun stock cracked amongst the flurry. I suspect this was a previous wound exacerbated by constant gunfire.

 When the shooting subdued to a dull roar, we decided to walk around the mosaic of mowed waterways. We ended up jump shooting another six this way alone. It was outstanding!

When we pulled our loop in the field we sent Nick back to the truck to grab more shells. He decided to just drive it to our spot anyway so we could move to the edge of the corn into the cut hay field. Ethan and I counted our birds. I guessed 25 Ethan 30.

5....10....16....19....25........29....35......37.......40....42...!

We had to recount three times because we couldn't believe it. Three more for a limit each. As Nick pulled the truck up to the un-mowed section I finished off my limit 10 feet in front of the truck.

Asked Nick to guess our numbers. 30 he says.

Nope. Two more for a complete limit.  The look on his face was priceless.

We load everything into the truck and Ethan pops his last one whilst sitting on the tool box of the truck. Unbelieveable.
We hand Nick his gun and tell him only ONE more. We follow as he walks to a waterway, BOOM! Nothing.

And then a flock of 15 gets up and he pegs one.

Done! A three man limit by 9AM.

The hay field we were parked in was still swarming with birds. We could have filled another three man limit if we wanted to. I have never had a shoot like this before, and it will probably be years before I do again. This was a great way to start off the fall.

Photos for this entry are courtesy of Ethan Shetler and Nick Livermore.

Stay Tuned.