Arizona Doves Sept. 1st and 2nd.

[abner]

I shoot the opening of Dove with my two sons and two grandsons. We had have near limits the last two days, too many Whitewing Doves--you can only have 6 Whitewing in the 10 limit. The area we have been hunting has very few Mourning Doves. The X grade Fox was purchased this year from the East and had originally been owned by a hunter from Arizona and now it is back in Arizona for the Dove opener. There are plenty of Doves and have finished shooting by 7:00 a.m. The oldest grandson--10 years old-- had his first Dove opener and got 4 birds on the 1st and 3 birds on the 2nd with a 410. The 7 year old got one with help and was thrilled. I hope the pictures are attached.

[birdawg]

A great time and cool gun.
Our grouse were hurt by a wet spring.

[Researcher]

Here in Eastern Washington our weather turned cool on 27 August and the 31st it was a high of 55 degrees and we got a quarter inch of rain. I went out yesterday and today and did some looking, but to no avail. Me thinks our Doves were in Elko by the time the season opened.

[MARSHFELLOW]

Abner,

nice to see your grandsons out there!!!!

tjw

[Silvers]

Hi Ralph, great pics, great gun, wonderful memories. If I'm thinking right I saw an XE that looks like yours a few months back. If so, small world. Silvers

[Twice Barrel]

Asolutely fantastic to have three generations out enjoying the hunt togeather. I still have the photo of my son at 10 years old with his first Bob White taken 25 years ago in a special album of my favorite outdoor photos.

Won't be long until those kids will be begging Grand Pa to let them take the XE out and shoot some birds.

[mc15426378]

Very nice Ralph. You have a lot to be proud of....including the XE.

Mike

[bbman3]

Ralph,Great to see your family hunting together. I plan to shoot a 16 Fox and the 32" 20 Smith tomorrow. Bobby

[mc15426378]

Bobby, why not shoot your new love..... the 32" CE 20? Worried you'll leave some sweaty fingerprints on it?

Mike

[Jim Cloninger]

Hi Ralph, fantastic hunt and fantastic photos. I live in northern California and we also had a very good dove shoot on the opener.
Jim

[TOOL MAN]

Ab,
Now that's a photo, worth 1001 words!!! Passing the torch to a new generation...doubt it gets any better. Hopefully there will be a few of them left (if they can free-up their thumbs, from text messaging each other) who will cherish the thrill of the hunt, as we do. I fear, it will be a pitifully small group. ----TOOL

[abner]

Hello and thank you all for the kind comments. This was a first for me, hunting with my grandsons and it was fun.

Silvers: The gun was purchased on the East coast and my son had it shipped to Dewey for for minor repairs on the safety and a new pad. So if you were at Dewey's you saw the gun. The gun is my sons and he smoked the Doves--28" Mod/Full, I however shot an early A with 30" IC/Full and shot my arm black and blue trying to get my limits. To make things worst, I missed on two Doves and as they passed me, he doubled the two-----I have not heard the end of ribbing.



We shot the third day on Friday and had great shooting again, but still mostly Whitewing Doves.

Bobby: I want to hear about your L.C. Smith 32" 20 ga. and how it worked---maybe I should have kept it.

[R.R.]

Thanks for sharing the pics.
I can almost feel my blood start moving again.
No dogs?

[Silvers]

Ralph, yes i happened to be at DV's back in April as I recall, on the day the XE showed up and I saw it there. Dewey said it was owned by a gent out west and of course I didn't ask for details. No biz of mine and I'm sure he wouldn't have told me anyway. Nice to see and hear how the old Foxes are out and about after doves. Frank

[bbman3]

Ralph i shot my 16 Sterlingworth Saturday and bagged the 15 bird limit.Got shot in my right arm to boot with one pellet and had to dig it out and i started bleeding like a stuck hog! I hollored and told shooters i had been shot and quit shooting at low birds! Monday,today i shot the 32" 20 gauge Smith and killed the first dove i shot at ! Got the limit with it and have no black and blue shoulder as the 2 1/2", 3/4'ounce shells have no kick and i dropped several dove at 50 yards or so with it. It is a self opener,just push top lever over and she ejects the hulls! Bobby