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.