If it Flies it Dies

“If it flies, it dies”, this was my motto after my first day of dove hunting. I went out for my first dove hunt this year on opening day and being the only girl, I quickly had to learn how to hold my own. The weekend started out with a bang and ended with a bang. We loaded up our shotguns and shells and headed south to our farm in Caldwell, Kansas. When we got there all the guys had started showing up one by one. Of course all excited for their first hunt of the season everyone was laughing and having a good time!

We woke up the next morning and I could tell a lot of the guys were hurting from the night before. Its funny how they all talk big the night “before” the hunt! We all headed out to the barn to get ready. We put on our camo, vests, and loaded up with shells. To be honest I haven’t had a ton of experience with a shotgun so I was prepared to waste plenty of shells. We split up into three different groups and took off in different directions. I ended up in a group with my dad and brother. We found some hay bails and put up our decoys. Then we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally I saw two doves come flying from behind my dad and right over his head. Of course by the time he looked up they were gone. Then we waited some more and another pair came by right over my head. Unfortunately, I happened to be posting a new tweet. Trust me, I got plenty of crap for that one.

We all loaded back up in the truck and drove back up the barn, we switched our groups around and headed down to the river. We put out our decoys and waited. After what seemed like forever we didn’t see a single dove. Again we packed up our gear and headed back up to the barn. We decided we would give it a little time and try finding the doves a little later. During our down time we decided to head over and shoot some prairie dogs. We brought a couple 204’s and a AR 15. Once we got over to the praire dog town and got set up, we suddenly started seeing tons of doves flying by. However we had left out shot guns back at the barn so we couldn’t shoot. After taking down a couple prairie dogs we decided to head back to grab the shotguns so we could get some doves. Once again as soon as we show up with our shotguns their wasnt a dove to be seen! Finally we figured we might as well shoot a few more prairie dogs while we waited, then sure enough the doves came back. This time we were ready and started taking them down one by one. At the end of the day we only ended up with eight doves. There were a few we never ended up finding in the corn or milo fields but we still had a blast and it was a great hunt. I cant wait to go on another dove hunt and hopefully next time ill have a little better luck 😉