Dove Season and My Dad The opening of dove season has special memories for me. It was a special time for me and my dad. Since opening day is Sept. 1st and my birthday is Sept. 3rd, my dad always got me something associated with dove hunting for my present. At least until I married and moved out of the house. I was probably 5 when he would take me dove hunting with him. Only to watch, and maybe go pickup the dove he had shot, but I loved our outings. My dad with his 12 ga. shotgun and me with my BB gun. When 6, he let me try shooting his 12 ga.. This is something I can Never forget because the shot knocked me over his leg as he tried to support me! Plus, the bruse and black eye it caused got my mom pretty upset with him!! What she did not know is that on a couple future trips he let me try my hand at shooting jackrabbits! To my pleasant surprise my dad bought me a 410 ga. shotgun for my 7th birthday. It was a used gun that he probably got from a pawn shop, but to me it was beautiful. Anyway, the first time we went hunting that year the dove were almost none existent. So, my first time to actually shoot at dove had not occurred. As the sun was about to set, and the hunt to end, my dad saw 2 dove flying really high. Since I had not taken a shot for any dove, he told me to go ahead and shoot at them. They were so high he did not thing I could hit one of them. I was so excited, and took the shot. To both our surprise I managed to knock down BOTH dove!! Again, something I will never forget. I used that 410 four more seasons, with the last one having to tape it together in order to shoot. The stock would fall off the barrel after each shot, and I would have to re-tape for the next. I think this is one reason I was a pretty good shot, because I only HAD one shot to get my dove! I know my dad did not like me having to use this gun, but extremely proud of my shooting ability! My dad was very serious about His 12 ga., and did not let me shoot it very often. Not just due to the Kick it had, but it was His gun! Anyway, again to my surprise, he bought me a 20 ga. shotgun for my 12th birthday. This was a New shotgun, not a used one from a pawn shop! We finally could actually hunt together. Except he sort of had the advantage with his 12 ga. Pump and me with my bolt action 20 ga., which at least had a shell clip allowing me to shoot more than once. However, I got pretty fast with my bolt action, and think I could get off 2 shots almost as fast as my dad and his pump! So, from the time I was 7 until I turned 18, my dad always bought me 2 boxes of shotgun shells, and surprised me with my 410 and 20 ga. shotguns. Until I was 16 we always went dove hunting the 1st Sunday after opening day. My dad never like going opening day due to all the Crazy hunters. See, they had crazy hunters even in the 50’s and 60’s! I return for his gifts, I used to cut up his 12 ga. shells, taking out the gun powder, and use the powder to make flares I placed in the street at Halloween to scare cars and people! Oh, I used candles that I had cut down as my timer!! It took my dad a couple years to figure out what I had been doing! P. S. - I still have that 20 ga. shotgun, and researched it through the World Wide Web and he bought it form Monkey Wards!!
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 15:22:03 +0000
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