I’m beginning to think I have lousy luck when it comes to hunting. My first trip out this season consisted of a lot of walking with a shotgun and virtually no game in sight. To be fair, we did see a pheasant fly out of a field but it was too far and was flying away from us. So technically, I have seen the animals I intend to eat.
Deer hunting has been the worst. The first hunt I had a dog running around under my stand and a variety of hunters come through behind me. The second trip out was also deer-less although the pheasant hunters were further out and I didn’t get an up-close look of any dogs.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a great time out in the woods. It would just be better if I could at least watch a few deer from my stand. Going forward, hunting is going to get tricky. Daylight Savings Time ended and it gets dark much sooner than it did a week ago. By the time I leave work, drive an hour to public land, and get into a tree, I’ll only be able to sit for a few minutes before it is past legal light and I have to pack up.
So, what do you do when you don’t have enough time to hunt deer? Well, in my case you head out to a local farm for some Dove Hunting. It is a completely different type of hunting and is great when time is limited. Basically, you lay out in a blind and chat it up with your buddy while waiting for Doves to come through.
On Monday I left work and met up with my guide at a farm in Hamburg. We sat out in a cut cornfield and watched the sky while talking. Unfortunately, there was no wind and there weren’t many birds around. The entire time we sat out, only one single Dove flew in close enough to take a shot on.
I broke two shots and hit nothing but air. When my guide asked how far I was leading the bird, my answer of “Six inches to a foot” made him chuckle. Dove fly faster than the clay birds I’ve shot in the past. I was told to lead the bird about four feet.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to give my new knowledge a try. As the sun began to set, we packed up the decoys and blinds then headed out. As we were loading up the truck another Dove flew past, about 15 feet above our heads. I couldn’t help but laugh at that, I sure have some lousy luck…
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