This year’s dove season opener on Sep. 1, in terms doves of actually seen, can be described as the absolute worst.
My cousin Dan Snare and I hunted the late afternoon and evening north of Calumet on property owned by my late cousin Bill Mansfield and his wife. Bill died about 3 ½ years ago his wife Carolyn passed away a few months away.
Their daughter Kay now has the land and has said we the cousins can continue to hunt there.
I’ve been going out there since I was 4 years old, tagging along with my late father who always enjoyed dove and quail hunting.
I’ve been shooting doves there since I was around 10, best I can remember.
Dan and I are first cousins and he is about three years younger than I am. We were always pretty close as kids growing up and we’ve remained that way. Through the years we’ve enjoyed dove and quail hunting together.
All the conditions for last week’s opening hunt seemed ideal. It was near 100 degrees when we got out there and it only got warmer throughout the afternoon.
One would think this would be perfect to draw doves to the pond for a drink. There was only one problem. There weren’t any doves.
I spotted one flying well out of range shortly after I arrived out there. But in the next four hours I was there, I saw one more dove and fired the only shot I had that afternoon.
Dan never had a shot at all. We stayed with it until a little over an hour before quitting time, which is sunset, thinking we’d see at least a few more.
Still, Dan and I took the time to visit and catch up and reminisce about really good hunts in previous years and other matters. We enjoyed that.
And it was nice to spend some time in the outdoors.
This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to hunt doves on the season opener since Pat and my’s grandson Liam was born on the last day of August in 2018.
He’s become a priority and we’ve usually celebrated his birthday on that day or very close to it. Since we celebrated it a few days before this time, I had the chance to go.
It’s pretty much been a tradition to open the season on Sep. 1 and I generally was there until he was born. Maybe some day he and his dad Terry will join me.