Dove Hunting 2008

[Just Ed]

I had an amazing day dove hunting Monday. We got onto some private land through a friend of a friend.

My friends Terre, Mark, and I all met up at 3am at a park n ride. Mark is friends with a guy named George - you may have seen him in The Denver Post a few weeks back

http://www.denverpost.com/huntfish/ci_10080409

and another guy named Larry who you may have read about on Sunday in the Post (Larry loves that bandaid joke)

http://www.denverpost.com/huntfish/ci_10345338

These guys all know a farmer that has a ton of land out east of Pueblo near Rocky Ford.

So we get there about 6:00 and set up. We were in an area between two feed lots that had a field of rotting cantelope and some tomatoes with a couple strips of okra and corn fields on each side. We nailed the snot out of them in the morning. The doves were flying from one feed lot to another and stopping on the way in the cantelope and tomato field to feed on the produce. Mark and I were sitting in the okra strips and Terre was on the road between the corn and the cantelope. Was a perfect spot. Larry and another friend drove up around 8:00 and set up. We shot until about noon or so then went looking for George and another friend of theirs. Met up with them and while we were standing there talking, we ended up shooting 4 more near the truck. The birds started flying so we went back to the field we started in and set up again.

Terre was on fire in the afternoon. I wasn't in a spot where I could see her shoot in the morning but in the afternoon, I was across the field from her. I would watch birds fly in over the corn and get ready. Terre wasn't letting them by. Seriously, I couldn't get a shot because she downed any dove that came over. She's a hell of shot.

We finished up about 5:00 or so and went over to the farmer's vegetable stand and thanked him a ton. Bought a bunch of really good fresh produce from him and made our way back home.

We shot well over a hundred birds between the three of us. About 28 of them were morning doves and the rest were Eurasians (there is no limit on Eurasian doves). Not sure how George, Larry, and the other two guys did - they're camping on the farmer's land down there the whole week.

It was an awesome day. Didn't finish cleaning birds until 10:30pm. All the birds I cleaned had corn feed or melon seeds in them. Good thing I took the day off today!

Also saw some scaled quail and some chicks out there. I was surprised to see the chicks - hopefully we got a double hatch this year. The big snow a couple years ago really decimated the population.

[newracer]

Buddy of mine did well out near Sterling, everyone had a limit within 2 hours opening morning. Unfortunately I did not go this year.

[Wallary]

I had to post this, it was just too funny not to.