The definition of a dreamer is a person who sells his house to buy lottery tickets, or a wingshooter who buys one box of shells for dove season. These zigging, zagging, and zooming birds should have been the uncatchable character or cartoon fame, instead of the roadrunner — just ask any dove hunter. Nonetheless, there are ways to become more shotshell efficient and put more doves in the bag.
It’s a story I think about at the end of every summer, a tale I make myself read once again as August turns to September and dove season finally arrives on the calendar.
Entitled Sunset’s Secret Thrill, the Joe Doggett authored story in 1993 chronicling all I love about the Lone Star State in the fall, from a South Texas dove shoot to the lure of a Texas Longhorns football game on the radio to the camaraderie of hunting pals gathered around a pickup truck tailgate after the sun has set. Aside from the familiar elements of his magazine tale, one thing that has always intrigued me about Doggett’s dove hunting adventure was his reference to trying to bag a limit of birds “inside a box.”
When the retired Houston Chronicle outdoor writer penned those words many years ago, the limit on dove in Texas was an even dozen birds each day. At the time of this writing, the daily bag limit is 15 dove per day, making the challenge of taking a limit within a box of 25 shotgun shells even more challenging… [continued]
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