First of all everything down there stings, sticks or bites and I'm limping from the two inch long mesquite thorn that went through my boot sole and into the ball of my foot.

I went for a dove hunt/drinking/cigar smoking corporate outing last weekend at the Los Banderos ranch southwest of San Antonio and Carrizo Springs about 20 miles from the Mexican Border.

Friday afternoon was spent at the crazy quail trap thrower trying to sharpen the eyes and reflexes. All this did is prove that I have very dull eyes and reflexes. It's been about 10 years since I've done any wingshooting and it showed. At 3:30 PM we went out to the dove fields and set up 100 yards off of some standing milo and waited for the dove to show. I actually wound up on a very hot corner and had my 12 bird limit in about an hour and yes, I shot 52 shells to do it. We had such a great spot that when we were done three guys from our group were moved in to get their limits.

An Australian guy about 100 yards from me was on his first bird shoot of any kind and used just over 7 boxes of shells to get 11 birds but he had a great time.

The next morning no birds were flying and the high gun was three birds and I only had four shots for one bird.

That afternoon we shot a live pigeon shoot using quail instead. We had four sets of spring boxes set within a 60 yard diameter circle with a lot of different contests. I got just about a third of the birds that I shot and the quail were a lot tougher to put down than the dove.

That afternoon we went back out for dove and I got the 11 birds left on my daily limit with 31 shots so the hit ratio was a little better. The Aussie actually filled his limit with less than three boxes of shells as one of the serious wingshooters sat with him and coached him on when to shoot and when not to.

The rest of the evening was watching the world series and LSU football with adult beverages and cigars.

Sunday morning was a quick bird hunt to fill out anyone who didn't have their 24 bird possession limit but the shooting was really slow.

[URL= ]

These were pen raised quail in the ring.
[URL= ]

quote:

It's been about 10 years since I've done any wingshooting and it showed.

Sounds like you did some good shooting though

I see a SXS in the pic. What kind of shotgun are you shooting? Our dove season has been dead after the first weekend. Maybe later in the season it will pick up.

The side by side in the picture is a Merkel 20 guage that Randy brought. The rest of us were shooting 12's. I'm next to Randy with a Remington 11-87, The Aussie (Paul) had the new Benelli autoloader and Patrick had Winchester auto.