Beachcomber & Times Press

By Mark Sampson

The sun was still high in the sky as we walked down the dusty little country road that afternoon. It could have been hot, real hot, but a persistent northeast breeze was just enough to keep the heat down, the bugs away, and us comfortable. On each side of us row upon row of standing corn quivered and rattled in the wind. The brown stalks and leaves told me that soon the giant combines would be rumbling through these fields. Cutting, husking, and separating the seeds from the cob these monster machines are an awesome sight as they transform the farmer’s hard summer work into a marketable commodity.

But that day the combines were still in the barn and hundreds of acres of standing corn surrounded us as we made our way down the lane to a little patch of sunflowers. It was a one acre oasis planted just for this day. September 1st was opening day of Maryland’s dove season, and that afternoon there wasn’t a place in the world I would have rather been than standing at the edge of those sunflowers with a shotgun under my arm.

As four of us approached the field it was hard to contain my excitement, dove were everywhere! They were flying in and out from every direction. It was obvious that we didn’t have to worry about finding a "good spot" to take a stand, anywhere you went you’d have birds overhead. We just spaced apart where we wouldn’t shoot each other and got ready.

Bird hunters know that each type of fowl offers it’s own unique challenge. Quail will flush right at the hunter’s feet startling him so bad that by the time he realizes what’s happening the bird’s in the next county. Ducks can circle a blind until everyone inside is dizzy and then zoom through the decoys so fast hunters blast away at nothing but air. Grouse will explode from the ground and zigzag through the trees so quickly hunters barely have time to get their safeties off before the bird’s nothing but a memory.

Dove, on the other hand, exhibit no common pattern, they’ll come fast, slow, straight, erratic, high, low, you name it - they’ll do it. Unlike so many other birds, you’ll often see a dove coming, and have plenty of time to get ready for the shot, but at the last minute it’ll do something crazy and you just end up blasting another hole in the sky! I’m inclined to believe that dove have two goals in life - to make hunters look like fools, and keep shotgun shell manufactures in business. These two things they do very well.

To illustrate, let me explain first that I figure I’m an OK shot, nothing to brag about, but good enough that when the action is good I’ll connect enough times go home happy. Now, when I go duck hunting I’ll usually take a full box of 25 shells. On a typical hunt I’ll expect to use half of them. But when I go dove hunting I’ll take four boxes of shells, and it’s entirely possible that I’ll run out before I get my limit of twelve birds! Thanks to my exploits you better believe there’s a lot of happy dove and 12 gauge dealers in this county!

For a lot of us, dove shooting is sort of a traditional way to start the new hunting season off. It gives us a reason to pull our camo clothing out of the attic, use up last years leftover shells, get some practice in with the shotgun, and reunite ourselves with our old hunting grounds and friends.

By the way, my tally for opening day was a limit of birds for 60 shells. Not bad - for me. Best of all that means twelve dove joined me for dinner, 48 are still laughing at me from the trees, my hunting partners have lots to tease me about, and my friend at the sporting goods shop was glad to sell me three more boxes of shells. It’s nice to make everyone happy!