A Truly Special South Zone Dove Opener

This year's South Zone was truly special for me in a lot of ways. Not only was it an opportunity for me to hunt and catch up with a lot of old friends, I also had was able to spend some quality time with some newcomers to our annual hunt. Even had the chance to meet one of the new local Game Wardens and he was really nice guy too. About the only negative thing about the weekend was several of our regulars were unable to make the hunt due to storm related problems.

The bird hunting was, in a word.....phenomenal!! The fog Saturday morning delayed the flight a bit, but, as soon as it burned off it was "Katy Bar the Door." We had a good mix of both Whitewings and Mourners, which allowed the flight to last longer, and both young and old hunters were able to get relatively easy limits. Over the course of the weekend, I would estimate we had 35-40 hunters leave with full two day limits. I would guess we shot somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 birds. It was definitely one for "the books."

In addition to the above mentioned attributes, it was especially memorable for me because it was my 5 year old son's first ever weekend hunt with the guys. My oldest (15) was off on his own, and we had plenty of quality one-on-one time together. He had an absolute ball shooting his new BB gun and we had a great time sitting on our dove stools talking about gun safety, dogs, cows, doves(wings, eyes, feet, etc.), swallows, butterflies, dragonflies, ants and whole host of other relevant/irrelevant topics.

Overall, it was just really neat to watch his eyes light up as he examined doves up close and watch his little brain working as he thought about all the new stuff going on around him. It was truly a memorable weekend. :

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Sorry about the quality they were taken with my cell phone.