With the Dove season opener on a Wednesday, I couldn't find anyone who wanted to shoot doves more than they needed to make money today. I normally don't work Wednesdays.
So, without friends, I didn't want to do that set-up-and-sit deal at o-dark-thirty. Friends are what makes that worthwhile. I decided to take my best friend, Gus the Vizsla (who has no day job), out to some hills and draws where I know that doves hang out in the brush, and hunt them like I would upland game birds.
It was tough; doves don't hold for a pointing dog. When the dog or the hunter gets within a certain distance, they just take off for the next ridgeline. But, by the end of the hunt, we had it down pretty well, and brought home a couple birds and some tired bodies after chasing the things literally for miles through the foothills (the dog and I both had GPS receivers on us).
If you have such a place, I recommend trying it. It's great practice for fast mounting and shooting, and gets the dog tuned up for finding downed birds in the brush, though it's probably not the best way to get a limit.
So, without friends, I didn't want to do that set-up-and-sit deal at o-dark-thirty. Friends are what makes that worthwhile. I decided to take my best friend, Gus the Vizsla (who has no day job), out to some hills and draws where I know that doves hang out in the brush, and hunt them like I would upland game birds.
It was tough; doves don't hold for a pointing dog. When the dog or the hunter gets within a certain distance, they just take off for the next ridgeline. But, by the end of the hunt, we had it down pretty well, and brought home a couple birds and some tired bodies after chasing the things literally for miles through the foothills (the dog and I both had GPS receivers on us).
If you have such a place, I recommend trying it. It's great practice for fast mounting and shooting, and gets the dog tuned up for finding downed birds in the brush, though it's probably not the best way to get a limit.
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