Dove Opener at the Ashcraft Place has become sort of a tradition. The hunt is a minor part of the day. We enjoy the food, camaraderie and the stories the best. We did miss Art Eatman this year, he decided to veg out for a bit after making a 4000 mile round trip to Speed Week.
We had 17 hunters, mostly THR members, and 30 guests total here yesterday for the dove opener. That's only about two acres per hunter, but I don't think anybody felt crowded.
We hunted until about 11:00 AM, then played with some toys in the backyard, then had a nice lunch on the front lawn(smoked Alaskan salmon, salsa and chile relish, turkey salad sandwiches, cheese curds and sub sandwiches that Dravur brought, I'm sure I'm missing something) and visited until about 4:00, when we went back out and hammered doves until sundown.
By sundown, we had about 120 doves down, the majority of which were Eurasian Collareds. Oh, and with 17 hunters and 120 birds, we had ONE bird dog, H&Hhunter's little terrier, Nitro, who ran about 40 miles and retrieved a bunch of birds we either couldn't get to or couldn't find. Nitro had a great day but I understand he's taking today off.
And if a bunch of shots were fired and no birds fell, Nitro would run around and check all the hunters and go like this:
At sundown, we had a great supper of dove breasts wrapped in bacon and peppers, cooked over a wood-fired bbq and Dr.Rob's great lasagne, garlic bread and salad, then topped off the meal with with lemon and apple pie from Smoke Rizen and his wife, an Italian cream cake (it was Robert's wife's birthday) and cookies and brownies that my brother Mike brought.
We didn't waste anything, either.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but the other guys will surely fill it in.
We had 17 hunters, mostly THR members, and 30 guests total here yesterday for the dove opener. That's only about two acres per hunter, but I don't think anybody felt crowded.
We hunted until about 11:00 AM, then played with some toys in the backyard, then had a nice lunch on the front lawn(smoked Alaskan salmon, salsa and chile relish, turkey salad sandwiches, cheese curds and sub sandwiches that Dravur brought, I'm sure I'm missing something) and visited until about 4:00, when we went back out and hammered doves until sundown.
By sundown, we had about 120 doves down, the majority of which were Eurasian Collareds. Oh, and with 17 hunters and 120 birds, we had ONE bird dog, H&Hhunter's little terrier, Nitro, who ran about 40 miles and retrieved a bunch of birds we either couldn't get to or couldn't find. Nitro had a great day but I understand he's taking today off.
And if a bunch of shots were fired and no birds fell, Nitro would run around and check all the hunters and go like this:
At sundown, we had a great supper of dove breasts wrapped in bacon and peppers, cooked over a wood-fired bbq and Dr.Rob's great lasagne, garlic bread and salad, then topped off the meal with with lemon and apple pie from Smoke Rizen and his wife, an Italian cream cake (it was Robert's wife's birthday) and cookies and brownies that my brother Mike brought.
We didn't waste anything, either.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but the other guys will surely fill it in.