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9/3/23. September is finally upon us, and my 4 year old son Beau, my Dad, and my new German wire hair June celebrated by making a dove outing this morning. Arrived about shooting time to over cast skies and a kinda sorta refreshing breeze from the north and east. Low around 70. Heavy dew. Every year I get there at daylight to dove hunt and every year I’m reminded I should’ve slept in a little and got there at sunrise instead. This year was no different, with a handful flying as we set up but then dead dead for almost an hour. Things finally picked up around 7 and I missed several opportunities dealing with Beau and a rookie fetching hound (who protested being staked out by taking a dump beside it). Even so, I quickly hit my “Beau limit” of 2 “dubs”, because he was ready to go fishing. Had we stayed, dad and I probably could’ve killed 4 or 5 more each. So we left them flying and headed to the the pond where Beau caught a little bass that he insisted I clean. Then up to see horses at the barn, to the creek crossing to check on Dad’s browntop field that’ll be ready in a couple weeks and let beau play in the sand on the creek bank, to the back 40 to gawk at the logging equipment, and to the back corner in the creek bottom to see a turkey carcass dad found hanging in the fork of a tree last week. First in tact turkey carcass I’ve ever come across in the woods. They’re usually devoured by coyotes but this one was above their reach. We found it less than 100 yards from where a hunter “missed” one this spring, so I suspect the shot was lethal but just not immediately. Grrrrr.

Anyway, back to business, June had a marginal debut. Didn’t mark either of the doves I shot, but in fairness to her I was splitting time between her and beau, when I should’ve had my time solely devoted to her. I just had her staked out beside me so she wouldn’t develop any breaking habits, even though she’s become reliably steady in training. Walked her out to the first one and after briefly pointing it; she picked it up and brought it right back to me. Same deal on the second one except she had a little harder mouth and didn’t want to give it up.


Feather beard after the second retrieve.


Showing off Grandaddy’s bird.

Felt good to be back afield with a shotgun in hand. Wouldn’t mind a few degrees cooler though.

I would hit a "like button" if there was one...

Love the "Beau limit": as with puppies, leave 'em wanting more.

Don't care at all for hunting young dogs on doves until they've long established and conditioned good mouth habits on bigger, less loose-feathered birds. Warm weather leads to lots of sticky saliva that trauma loosened dove feathers (there's a name for the phenomenon that I forget) wad in and encourage mouthing of a tasty bite-sized morsel.

Sounds like a great day!!

Rick wrote:Love the "Beau limit": as with puppies, leave 'em wanting more.

Don't care at all for hunting young dogs on doves until they've long established and conditioned good mouth habits on bigger, less loose-feathered birds. Warm weather leads to lots of sticky saliva that trauma loosened dove feathers (there's a name for the phenomenon that I forget) wad in and encourage mouthing of a tasty bite-sized morsel.

Thanks Rick. I’ve told myself I’ll take him as long as he wants to go and try not to keep him out there too long, while also trying to make sure he sticks things out that he starts, so there’s a fine line to walk there. He asked about going to fish after one dove and we agreed on leaving after two. He was chirping me pretty good after the next two consecutive misses. Made me laugh. His two year old little sister read me the riot act when we returned and she got wind that we were fishing without her. “(Hands on hips and yelling) Why I not go?!!” Safe to say she’ll have the want to when she’s old enough to join.

I was certainly thinking about you and your rathers for starting dogs on birds other than doves as she made the feather salad in her mouth on the way back to me with the second one!

My Father used a cane pole, mono, and a sharp pine cone wrapped with feathers when training his. He was big into dogs and quail. Good memories.

Great story to tell. Catch any fish?

Thought I'd about heard it all with regard to working on mouth habits, but had somehow missed pine cones. Made me smile.

Great hunt and pics!

Bud wrote:My Father used a cane pole, mono, and a sharp pine cone wrapped with feathers when training his. He was big into dogs and quail. Good memories.

Great story to tell. Catch any fish?

That’s interesting Bud. Hope it doesn’t come to that. Had a friend with a lab that would eat doves, ducks, quail, didn’t matter. He tried everything, including nails taped to a bumper. Didn’t work.

We did some force fetch/hold work on the tailgate afterwards with one that Dad shot to work on our mouthing habits. We’ll see.

As for fish, we had a lot of nibblers but not many bites. Beau hauled in the only fish of the day, a 1lb bass.

Good Job Dad and Beau is growing up fast!!!!!!!

Deltaman wrote:Good Job Dad and Beau is growing up fast!!!!!!!

He is, and I sometimes don’t fully realize it until flipping back through logs here…

Back in the dove field yesterday afternoon 9/16/23 for what turned out to be an hour long sit with Dad, my 2 year old daughter, and June. Showers alll around us but never rained. Finally set up around 4, which is an hour later than I wanted to be. Probably saw 75 doves or so. Little girl loved it. Missed several shot ops by setting up in the wrong spot initially and missed ops situating the dog and the little one. Little bit killed 3 bags of goldfish, 2 fig bars, and lost count of the number of fruit pouches. Dad and I came out with 8 doves in an hour of hunting and left the field at 5 to let them come in to feed. June continues to progress slowly. She caught a lively cripple mid air but still wasn’t too keen on filling her mouth with feathers while panting in 85 degree heat. Lots of “fetch” commands given out, some of which were taken.

Haven’t seen the first teal around but plan to make a dry run of sorts next weekend so june can get the feel of a pre dawn boat ride before the big show starts in November.

Glad y'all were able to kill a few birds, despite the distractions , and hoping for some temps relief, and bird movement soon.

Forgot to add a photo of my little dove princess.
This was pre-hunt after we parked the truck.

Ahhhh, our Goldfish muncher!!!!!
She's as cute as a button DE

Must take after her mom.

Rick wrote:Must take after her mom.

Haha, that she does.

Don’t let the cute pic fool you, she can be mean as a snake and rules the roost at our house.

Have a little sister 10 years younger than I "Dove princess rules the roost at our house" and it didn't bother me one bit...

Duck Engr wrote: Haven’t seen the first teal around but plan to make a dry run of sorts next weekend so june can get the feel of a pre dawn boat ride before the big show starts in November.

Was prepping gear last night and decided last minute to slide floor Jack under the boat and double check trailer bearings. Drivers side was fine but heard the unmistakeable “roar” from passenger side, so I decided to bail on my teal dry run for this morning. Probably saved myself a headache. Bearings will get their annual repack/replace as soon as it cools off a few more degrees.

Duck Engr wrote:Bearings will get their annual repack/replace as soon as it cools off a few more degrees.

No faith in Bearing Buddies? (Not that an annual manual check isn't a good idea, anyway.)

Whew!!!! Good call on the pre-check DE

Rick wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:Bearings will get their annual repack/replace as soon as it cools off a few more degrees.

No faith in Bearing Buddies? (Not that an annual manual check isn't a good idea, anyway.)

[quote="Rick"]I do trust them within each season but my boat sits so much during the summer that rust can form. I also usually put about 4000 miles on them each duck season. I get out and touch my hubs without even thinking about it each time I stop for gas.

Good habit, that. Having been around before Bearing Buddies, I found them a God-send and was always lucky with them, even during my Capt. Rick phase when the trailer pretty much lived behind the truck.

Tell us a story about Beau and the Dove Princess, Christmas morning, at their age it has to be a special (exciting) time for them... Pork chops latest short video was Reaper underneath the Christmas tree...

Haha well it was a wild scene, that’s for sure. Beau managed to barely sneak onto the nice list and secure a zero turn lawn mower. He immediately took it outside in the rain and mowed till mid afternoon when the battery died. The dove princess got her pink dollhouse she’d been asking for since July and has about worn the paint off of it.

Had them up at the farm today and Saturday riding horses, playing in the dirt, and just letting them be kids. Grandaddy has them talked into buying a pony and putting it in our back yard…

After reading the first paragraph, I wasn't grinning, it was full-blown laugh out loud...
Thank you very much Buddy, made my evening...

Haha thanks for asking about them!

Scrouge even smiled a bit.