Well, since I had no where to go this weekend, and the weather has been pretty nice, I talked a friend into playing Golf yesterday, except that he had also been invited to go Dove hunting… so we ended up with a twofer…
Since all the local courses were full, we ended up with an 0830 tee time, about 40 minutes South of DC at a course in Stafford Co.; which happens to be on the way to the Dove shoot, so up and at em at the crack of dark… Load up the golf gear, the gun gear, a change of clothes, hard hat, and blaze orange vest.
Off into the dark of morning I go; and promptly get off at the next exit, turn around and go back to get the ammunition still sitting on the work bench… sigh…
Make the rendezvous with 5 minutes to spare, transfer the load to the Suburban we’re taking, and off we go to pick up the other two guys. We get to the first house, both guys are sitting on the front porch, with the Lincoln loaded with gear-
Now I find out, oh by the way, the golf cum dove shoot has now turned into a family affair with a ‘lunch’ down at the farm, so now we have to take two SUV’s to carry all the crap required…
Oh joy… So off we go, with our mini-caravan heading down I-95 to the golf course, only to have the other SUV call and say they have to stop for gas! Something about the wife’s extended shopping trip yesterday…
Finally get to the golf course and we have 10 minutes to make our tee time- so we jump through our asses, get up to the first tee, and find out the fourth member of the group didn’t bring any golf balls… This is just getting better and better…
Suffice to say, we played a round of flog- not golf. Now on to the Dove shoot! But first, we stop an pick up a bushel of crabs for lunch. Just as we get through paying and load them up, ANOTHER phone call- I-95 is at a dead stop, so the women have decided NOT to come, they are turning around and going shopping; and oh by the way, save some crabs and bring them home for the us and the kids…
Now mind you, I was told this was just a “little ol place down close to the river,” so as we drive in down a country road, to a country lane to a dirt trail, I’m expecting maybe an old cabin, or maybe a trailer stuck on the property.
Nah… this is the Taj Mahal of little ol places… Two story steel building, built out with an upstairs bunkroom, downstairs game room, living room and full kitchen!!! 20 acres of cleared land, shooting platform with skeet throwers, golf driving area, little pond with Koi in it, etc..
Since there are crabs to be eaten, that is first on the priority list, as people get full, the action moved out to the skeet area. I dug out my trusty old Mossy 590A1 18 inch barrel, no choke black shotgun with ghost ring sights, and promptly get laughed at- “You’re not REALLY gonna use that are ya?”
Unless you want to loan me yours, damn right I’m gonna use it! (not like I have a lot of choices here). So one of the guys throws a few birds for me, and I actually hit 2 of 4- (blind hog here- stepped on the acorn)
With a couple of hours to go before any serious dove arrivals, we drug a few other toys out of various gun bags …
Since I happened to have my M-4 along, I put a few down range to check the sights. I was pretty happy with this at 100 yards!
After various and sundry guns had been fired, one idiot dove flew right across in front of the skeet thrower- The poor guy on line tried to change in mid-stream from clay bird to dove, with the expected results… He missed everything, and of course we didn’t let him forget it!
We proceeded to get on line as we had planned, everyone in agreement on sight line, etc… I took my trusty 590 and trudged to the far end of the field (new guy walks the furthest to the worst position). I plopped down on a comfortable stump, rigged up and donned the old hardhat- Why you ask? Well, years of bird hunting in Texas taught me there is ALWAYS one sumbitch that cannot follow rules… He will chase a bird through his zone, the next guys and three counties over to get a shot! While the pellets just sting a little, they are an obnoxious interference when I’m trying to scan for doves.
I start hearing a few shots and see birds in the distance, but none down my way… Suddenly, I see one coming and jinking like he’s got an ME109 on his tail- I come up and shot- feathers- bird is still hauling ass… dammit…
Now I’m really paying attention- One comes out of the tree line high, shot- feathers-and now it dives for the deck and jinks like hell, out of my sight line… 0 for 2 sigh…
Ahhh- here comes another high boy- he’s not jinking… maybe… shot- MORE damn feathers… and he is almost into the treeline, when he falls… FINALLY, 1 for 3
I go pick him up and bag him, and start walking back to my stump when I hear the rattle of spent shot hitting the ground, so I just hunch up and keep walking. Somebody got a little excited I guess.
I plop back down on my stump, and go back to scanning, here comes one out of the treeline, about 10 feet up, I draw a bead, shot- ‘A’ feather- away he goes and the next guy knocks him down as shot rains down again. 1 for 4, that’s IT; I’ve had enough fun and it’s obvious the old 590 just isn’t working out here…
So up the hill I trudge, collecting doves on the way, and finally get up to the Taj… The host wants to know if I want to borrow his son’s 20ga, but I pass. I’d rather sit in the air conditioning and watch golf!
We hear shot rain down on the roof of the cabin, and look out, sure enough, the first guy is 40 degrees beyond his sight line, damn near turned completely around! The host goes out mumbling about car windshields and other things and takes care of the problem.
The others finally come in, we had about 24 doves total, probably 100 rounds fired, so I don’t feel so bad now 🙂 We donated the doves breasts to the little church lady down the road, and off we went for DC.
We finally got back about 9pm, unloaded and the guys got gnawed on by the wives for being ‘late’ with the dinner as I stole out the door and headed back to my place. I pulled in, unloaded the car and realized I was a little hungry, since I had only eaten four crabs all day.
Of course, there were no leftovers, I didn’t want to cook, so the default was a peanut butter sandwich…
Oh the highs and lows of it all…. 🙂