first dove

[buckshot1224]

How many of you guys actually remember killing your first dove? (with a gun, not stones and knives *2th, tater, merg*)

Surprisingly, I do. Around 11 years old I guess, flying straight at me while picking up a bird for dad. Dad hollars at me and I stoned his butt with my single shot .410.

[Slaya]

Can't recall my first dove. I remember the first shoots. What I remember vividly is my first bird with the .410; a woodcock flushed in front of the Brittanys down an old wagon road on the farm. I can still see Buck and Mack locked up on that point in my mind's eye. Buck backed the old boy like he knew what he was about that morning.

Dad said he had the wrong equipment and should have had a camera that morning instead of a shotgun. Now that I have my boys and the quail and dogs are gone, that comment makes a lot of sense to me.

[dixiedeerslaya]

i remember my first hunt... didnt kill a dove that day, although i shot plenty.... the next hunt i killed 3 or 4 but i dont actually remember the first dove... i was 12 or so.

i remember my first limit even more tho. killed my 12 and was headed back to the truck to meet back up with dad. came across a crippled dove on a fence row...thought about leaving him for a split second, but then said hell naw, if i get caught i will just have to tell him the story and hope for the best.......headed on back to the truck with 12 in my vest and 1 in my hand.

[PoachinAint4Puhseys]

My 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th came at the same time. Snuck over to a pasture near the house where the doves where stacked up on a power line, 2 shots later it looked like a feather bomb had went off.

[PoachinAint4Puhseys]

i remember my first hunt... didnt kill a dove that day, although i shot plenty.... the next hunt i killed 3 or 4 but i dont actually remember the first dove... i was 12 or so.

i remember my first limit even more tho. killed my 12 and was headed back to the truck to meet back up with dad. came across a crippled dove on a fence row...thought about leaving him for a split second, but then said hell naw, if i get caught i will just have to tell him the story and hope for the best.......headed on back to the truck with 12 in my vest and 1 in my hand.

Glad you better judgement kicked in

[4THEGIRLS]

Remember it like it was yesterday. I was 10 and it was 1983 in the Long Cane Hunt Club dove field behind the old clubhouse. Probably would have killed more if I could have pulled back the hammer by myself! Was using an old Stevens single shot 20 ga. Lots of good memories growing up there w/ Dad.

[santee11]

I remember mine. I was in the 3rd grade hunting with the 410. I remember telling my Dad that I could not figure out why I could not hit them. I said I put it right on them and they just won't fall. He looked at me like I was stupid and said son you have to lead them. How was I supposed to know that? After that little bit of information it was on.

[baydog]

I hit so few and far between that it would be impossible to distinguish. If I had to put it vaguely, I would be young and it would most likely be off of a powerline.

[BigBrother]

I dont remember how old I was, but we put on a big dove shoot. My pappa was in his last days of cancer and had requested he come home for his final days. He was a WWII veteran and had access to VA care, but wouldnt go to them. Long story short, hospital bills add up when you fight cancer, and the dove shoot was done to help put some money in the bucket...

The family was in the living room, pappa was on his couch, in his tshirt and underwear, (typical sunday afternoon attire). He handed me my dad's single shot .410 and a box of shells and told me to go shoot him some doves. The shoot had been going on for a few hours and most folks had limited and were at the trucks eating BBQ and drinking stumphole and beer. I made my way to the powerline because someone told me that is where I needed to be.

I went through most of the box of shells without cutting a feather. Until then my wing shooting was limited to crows, blue jays and other birds what ate up the pecan crop.

My last five shells were in my pocket and two birds light up on the wire. Blam, and one fell. I couldnt believe it. I tried to get sporty again and hit one on the wing..didnt happen. Finally, I caught one fluttering fixin to light and it was my first official bird on the wing. I burned through my last two shells and went back to the house as happy as a young boy could possibly be. I brought those two birds in to show pappa, and he was happy too. I wish he would have been able to come out and join me and share my excitement in seeing them fall. I went back outside and picked them clean of feathers and gutted them. My granny wrapped them in tin foil and broiled them in butter; pappa and I shared them for a snack.

Pappa passed a few days afterwards and I lost my favorite fishing and hunting buddy. I was at school, it was a Wednesday, and my mom came to pick me up. I remember how happy I was to get called out of class to go home early...I asked if we were going to see pappa and she burst out into tears.

Sorry for the buzz kill. I remember that series of events like it was yesterday...

[Simple Man]

I remember being enamored with the big men killing birds at will. And one by one, with my Stevens single-shot 20ga, shooting and shooting and shooting. Thumb was worn from cocking that hammer. I would've been about 12 or so when I killed my first one. Can't recall the specifics at the moment.

But what I remember above it all was walking behind the tractor, slinging wheat onto freshly turned dirt. That was normal dove killing procedure back in the early 80s. Then it all changed.

[ktownduckhunter]

Member my first. I was about 10. I had a New England single shot 20 ga. I was just walking around the fields behind the house, been doing that for a good 2 hours, shooting at anything i could see, 10 yards-200 yards, prob had shoot 2 boxes of shells. Finally late that afternoon a group of 3 flew had to be 40 yards away, i threw the gun up and shot way out in front of them and one of them went down in the middle of the field. I ran all the way out in the field grabed him and ran all the way back to the house. Prob a good 400 yards back. Woke pops up from his Saturday afternoon nap and showed him!!! I was a proud youngen.

[Swamp Rat]

Boykin Prison Farm, somewhere around 1974. I was shooting my brothers Savage Model 24, .410 under 22. The bird was flying away from me and rising to land in a tree. I busted him before he got to it. Still picture it in my mind to this day.

[Rem11-87]

I tried to think about my first dove kill. I feel certain I shot him off the line. I know the gun but cant remember the time.

I do have a good memory and a permanent scar from one of my earliest dove hunts though. I had to be about 8. I remember after the hunt was over we were standing around my grandfathers house. He had his 1100 leaning aganist the house. He has always practiced gun safty, and it was unloaded with the chamber locked open. I remember I picked it up and said "i could get me a limit if I had a big gun". As i shouldered it, one of my fingers hit the bottom button and the chamber slammed foreward and almost took the tip of my middle finger.