doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Dove season OVER in Texas Panhandle

Sunday is supposed to have a high in the 30s

01 Sept 23 11 Doves, Daly 410 3” 7 ½ reloads
02 Sept 23 13 Doves, Daly 20 gauge
04 Sept 23 15 Doves, Browning Superposed Chisled 20 IC/Mod
05 Sept 23 01 doves, L.C.Smith Q3 (1893) with Briley 20 ga tubes
06 Sept 23 11 Doves, Rem 3200 with 20 gauge barrels
NO HUNT HOT 105 degrees
09 Sept 23 15 doves, Browning Superposed 20 ga IC/Mod LTRK
11 Sept 23 15 doves, Remington 1100 16 gauge with cut barrel no vent
12 Sept 23 03 doves, Superposed 20 4 digit, farmer plowing field
No hunt for three days, wet roads
18 Sept 23 15 doves, Citori 16 gauge
19 Sept 23 8 doves, Zamacola 12 gauge, short hunt,
23 Sept 23 15 doves, Remington 3200 with special barrels
25 Sept 23 10 doves, Bernardelli Gamecock Premier 12 ga, use light ammo
30 Sept 23 10 doves, Rottweil Olympia 12 ga
02 Oct 23 10 doves, GECO 16 gauge WINDY and Cold
03 Oct 23 05 doves, Daly Superior, 20 ga, VERY WINDY
09 Oct 23 06 doves, Amercan Arms Brittany 20 gauge, FEW DOVES
15 Oct 23 00 doves, Liege a Feu 16 gauge, was 32 degrees yesterday
24 Oct 23 00 doves, Citori 12 gauge, NO DOVES, SEASON OVER
163 DOVES

I have been fortunate enough to be invited to dove shoots on a diary farm in Phoenix. They are inundated with eurasian doves with no season or limit. To shoot a couple hundred in an hour with two shooters is quite common. Interestingly the owner said there were more born in that hour of shooting than we had shot. It's 'high fence' so to speak but for a Canadian kid with no dove season at all, it was a delight.

TW
Thanks for the post
NO, I do not keep the shots per dove data
Some days I will shoot 15 doves for 20 shots,
sometimes a box of shells is required
and sometimes ........

Yes, I am shooting whatever, no tanks or grain fields, tough birds but FUN

I, also, am getting older and do not travel well, at 75,
overnights is not on my list of fun things to do.

Mike

Care to say how many shells were expended? Absolutely not picking on you. Just curious if you also kept up with that too. That's a fine season by any standard, given the limits and difficulty. And I quite like that you used a variety of different guns. I've done some of that as well at times, just taking a gun out because it hasn't been out, and I've not shot it in a while but have never been as methodical as you on that count and a lot of my doin's anymore are just target games for enjoyment because it's whot I have easiest access to. Dove hunting now involves overnight stays for me and traveling w/a pair of guns is about all that I want to fool with, even on a short trip. Was a time that huntable mourning dove were plentiful around here. The birds are still here in areas but the urban sprawl/development(?) has made places one can hunt close by almost extinct. And too, my desire to drive any distance returning after a day's hunt has abandoned me as I've aged, so a hotel or motel comes into play for a roost, even when out shooting on friends, if one isn't too far removed. Enough.

I have always felt that anyone who can pass shoot our panhandle and W TX mourning dove in a flyway at the 75% level, taking all comers, is doing some serious world class rough shooting. Very few can manage that. Not talking about birds leaving fields in the afternoons or coming into tanks or water troughs by wind motors. Talking about highflyers in open flyways where the distances between food and water is miles and being positioned somewhere out in the middle, well away from either. I don't think there is a more sporting game or rewarding bag than that type of game shooting.

WELL . . .

You must have a very small apartment

Fudd, what do you do with your harvested game?

20.1 cubic foot freezer in the garage. Had it for years
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-20-1-Cu-Ft-Upright-Freezer-Color-White-ENERGY-STAR/3291100

66 1/2" x 31" x 30" external dimensions

Some were donated to homeless shelter, some went
to friends or wives of those no longer able to hunt.

All birds were cleaned, soaked for 3 days, bagged in
water. frozen or donated after being cleaned.

Mike

He he he
I use a different gun each outing.
I try to use them all in a 5 year time span.
The first three doves are usually quite safe

Hardest to shoot is an Ithaca NID 10 gauge with 32 inch barrels
and doves in a 25 mph wind, WHEW!!

Neither. Sheer different-circumstance happy bewilderment.

I need to wear elbow pads to chop celery, yes.

No slight intended, I assure you. I was just, like, where would I put them all?? And how quickly could I eat them?

I love, love, love the notion of donating wild doves to a homeless shelter. Wow. Bravo.

Yes,
After soaking in water ( water changed out daily) ,
The dove breasts are placed in zip lock bags
and water added to cover the doves, then any
air is expelled and the zip lock closed.
Then the bags are placed zip lock up in the freezer.
Once frozen the bags can be orientated any direction.

This method prevents freezer burn and extends to life
of the meat.

Some folks prefer a vacuum sealer, but I do not have one.

Thank you for your interest

Mike

Mike: That is how I preserve my gamebirds as well (grouse and woodcock). Very effective. Quart freezer bags work up to even 2 birds that are grouse-sized and then I move-up to gallon-sized on bigger birds (pheasants come to mind, ducks as well). Two or even 3-years in the freezer are not a problem.

I have a buddy who freezes squirrels that way. Lasts up to 2 years.

I used to use one of those vacuum sealers but I don't anymore. Those things really suck!!......Aw.. c'mon guys!! That was funny!!

In the old days. . .when I was in Belgium. . .9/10th's of the hunters' game wound up in the Belgian restaurants - same as the old pigeon shooting days in England. You had to be careful biting down because of the shot. One would hope that the game is consumed likewise (Though I have a Vietnam era friend whose freezers are like archeological digs).

I freeze my game birds that way and have for as long as I can remember. Fish, too.

Having a season end, even after a good one, can be a hollow feeling. What does one do after all that activity ends and you must go back to the more "ho-hum" day-to-day stuff. I'm at the point now where all the anticipation in advance of a "season" is lots of fun too, the planning and the logistics. The whole time you're planning for it, you also worry (a little) about the vast raft of things than could upend all your plans and it's only after you're there, deeply involved in it all, that you (or I) can let go of that alternate planning and fully enjoy the processes. When it's all done, when the guns (& birds) are cleaned and the gear has been put away for another year's slumber, then the silence starts to creep in. You're grateful, of course, that it all worked-out so-well, but now what? That's even worse when winter has completely bowled you over and it's a Monday morning and you've just shovelled deep snow off of your driveway...Fall is just too-brief, too-ephemeral, darn-it.

I suppose you must just begin again, and start making plans for the next "adventure", the next season, and move forward to putting the pieces together. You know, there's a now oft-unused Spanish 12 sidelock double in the gun cabinet and a small, late, trip to South Dakota for pheasant might just be the ticket...

Well.... Since this post was originally about the Texas season, I'm happy to report that we have had Exceptional shooting almost daily here since this discussion started....Our first season segment runs on until this Sunday the 12 th and reopens again on December 15.....
Birds, lots of large fully feathered migrants, are still using all of my fields here and providing wonderful outings....Birds are wise and canny, offering the most challenging shooting one could ask for on a windy afternoon....