Dove Opener

[Larry Ashcraft]

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.

 

[H&Hhunter]

That lemon pie was so was so good that I had to lick the plate clean!

A couple of thoughts on yesterday....

I sure as heck missed seeing and talking to Art. With that one downer in mind we managed to have ourselves one seriously good time. I missed the early morning flight. My wife and I showed up a bit late but got right to hunting. I had the shotgun and she was the dog handler. She had a borrowed 20 ga but decided that she'd rather just work with the dog for the day and was great company and a great asset I'm so happy she came along.

We decided to head over to the north side of the field first thing and as we were walking the fence line Nitro my Jagdterrier AKA (German hunting terrier) ran under the fence and started to sniff a bush. I called him and he gave me one of those "hey dad I know I'm supposed to come when you call but I got something going on here looks." Sure enough he quickly found a dead dove and retrieved it to me.

Now, I know that all of the bird dog guys reading this are probably rolling their eyes back and thinking WELL YEAH that's what a bird dog does. But Nitro isn't a trained bird dog! I use my jagdterriers for hog hunting and blood trailing wounded big game. Two years ago while blood trailing a huge buck that a friend put an arrow into and couldn't find after two I I had him along for an incidental duck hunt. I waded in and left him on the beach, and with no prompting or training whatsoever he began retrieving ducks. He just dove in grabbed them and brought them to shore. It shocked me but I thought "HEY great, lets go with it!" last winter at 6 years old I started taking Nitro out with a buddy who has bird dogs and letting him watch and run with the real deal trained bird dogs. The Jagdterrier is a fur and feather breed and he's shown interest in birds since being a puppy but I've never really worked him on birds until last winter. And last winter he started to point and flush and retrieve but I think he felt a bit overshadowed and reluctant with the big time pro bird dogs around so he never really took the lead in any of it. Apparently he was paying attention however because yesterday he was acting like a real life been there done that retriever. Needless to say it made me very happy to see him take up on birds like he did yesterday and he'll get a lot more field time this year on his own and with his bird dog pals. We still have a few things we need to work on but he's got the basics down really good. I actually feel a bit silly that I haven't seriously worked him on birds before this.

In any case the morning had slowed down by the time we got set up so we moved around a bit and helped the other hunters complete some difficult retrieves. We hunted until late morning then came in for a fantastic lunch and some down time followed by a shoot "O" ramma! There was an assortment of firearms for everybody to shoot. I brought a .470 NE double rifle and a bolt action .404 Jeffery which we used to powder rocks on the berm and send the little rubber "self sealing" target into low orbit it doesn't "self seal" when hit by a heavy DG round. There were several really cool AR's including a couple of suppressed rifles a red dot sighted AK a .375H&H and an assortment of handguns which we shot through out the hot part of the day.

As the sun lowered we once again took up our positions and had a very steady if not fast paced afternoon of wing shooting. The dog was running and retrieving just about every minute of the afternoon if not for my group my wife would take him over to other groups that had a troublesome recovery issue and Nitro would find and retrieve for them whether it be in water or thick brush whatever. I think he found every bird we sent him on but one. He was a busy boy I'd say he did 30 to 40 retrieves in a 3 hour period.

As the sun set we finished up our shoot and retired to the grill where stories of the days hunt were regaled with joy and enthusiasm if not a bit of embellishment, we are after all hunters!

Dinner was set out after the birds were properly cooked and we sat to wonderful conversation filled meal topped off by some of the best pie one could ask for. My lovely bride made me stop eating pie after the third helping, maybe my fourth, but I thought it was highly unreasonable of her to make me stop being a pig in public!!

On the drive home we decided to make this a great bird hunting season and Kim my wife, has decided that we are going to do a lot of bird hunting with the dogs this year. I am of course looking forward to it. This has already cost me a pile o doe as I have now firmly committed to buying a little Browning O/U in 28 ga that I've been ogling for a while. If she's going to be a bird dog lady, she is going to need a gun after all!!

That was the best time I've had in the field in a LONG time in fact since we did this same hunt last year.

BTW

Sandy....

I forgot to sign into the guest book!! We'll now be forced to come back later in the season to sign in and shoot birds for an afternoon.

Some pictures.

Nitro patrols the perimeter looking for downed birds

The start of the great bottle cap race of 2012

Robert shooting his .375H&H

My little man making a retrieve in the afternoon!

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Also, Greg handed out these great shirts that are guaranteed to become valuable collectors items:



My brother Mike learning the joys of shooting a double rifle:

 

[MCgunner]

Sounds like you all had a good time again this year. Figured I'd post about my weekend here, but looks like it's about your hunt, so I'll go back to the thread I already started. Hope all get some doves for the grill. I've got my share, can tell ya that.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Some one said doves on the grill? I have pics of that

And the lasagne too.

 

[Dr.Rob]

The terrain... shade is hard to come by in the morning but in the afternoon the few trees along the fence line provide a welcome break from the sun.

 

[Robert]

Wait, I lived this year? Good to know.

 

[Dr.Rob]

The battery...

All sorts of shotguns make it to the opener.

My Remington Sportsman 12 Magnum accounted for 7 doves this year, but one managed to escape. Still that's double last year's take for me and I was very happy.

 

[MCgunner]

I limited both days, report filed in my thread in this forum. It's an annual thing. We started hunting dove together in college, my bud and I. That was 40 years ago this year, so this one marks a milestone. Ten years from now, I hope I'm alive and Larry's alive to do it again. Might be a bit tough shooting out of a wheel chair.

Here's a pic from a few years back, me in the green shirt with my little Remington Spartan 20 gauge. I was a might tired and needed a good cold beer. LOL

 

[Dr.Rob]

Fun with the .470:

Mule kicking ear shattering recoil is nothing compared to being trampled by an enraged dragonfly, practice accordingly!

 

[Dr.Rob]

When the dust clears there's time for the Dakota in .404 Jeffry... which I rather enjoyed shooting. Light for a 'heavy' rifle, gorgeous wood and a lot of power.

comparing .404 and .470 cartridges.

Recoil is stout but manageable. We lined up to have a crack at it.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Of course, we like quiet time too...

And this may be the quietest 5.56 I have ever been around. (The trick is it's a .308 can on a .223 rifle)

 

[Dr.Rob]

But back to doves... cleaning them isn't as fun and shooting them and certainly is time consuming, sometimes a friend will pitch in to help... but the rewards are worth it.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Wait, I lived this year? Good to know.

Funny thing about that. I was in the back pasture where the final assault wave attacked. I was walking on the dried bone fragments of THR members and dragonflies, they crunched under my feet making a sickening dry pop with each step.

It was obvious that a major battle had taken place there in times long past. Amongst the carnage, the bones and equipment strewn about was one small neatly kept grave stone. The language was difficult but with some time and study I realized that it was written in dragonflyish.

I was able to translate with some difficulty but the inscription read as follows "Here lies some parts and pieces ( those that we didn't eat) of Gus, who was dashed into tiny red gory bits after tumbling down the jagged cliff when he charged over the parapet, a worthy opponent, Sept, 1st MMXII. But that rabid dog H&H still got one a coming!"

I noticed that the Dragonflies were docile this year though I sensed a strange tension in the air almost as if they might be planning something. They seemed to be studying, planning, regrouping. One flew by me and I am pretty sure, but not positive that he bellowed out the word "FREEEEEEDOOOM" as he went by.

Weird huh?