In September 1964, the hot spot for Mourning Doves in Texas was George West, a small town in the northern part of south Texas. Grain fields abounded and, for roosting, there were miles and miles of the famed south Texas brush country.
My Dad and I had decided to go ahead and pay for a “day hunt” to sample some of this reportedly outstanding shooting. We called the local C of C and they gave us the name of a rancher booking hunts. We called him and set up a hunt for the coming Saturday.
Arriving in George West, after the three and a half hour drive from my home in southwest Houston, we greeted the rancher and paid him a whopping $10.00 for the two of us. An added benefit was that he wanted to hunt with us, three limits now, and take us a to a special place to shoot. He said the birds were eating him out of house and home and were a nuisance. We said, “Fine with us. Lead on!”

This particular late September in South Texas was unusually hot and by 3:30 PM, no daylight savings time, everything was either wilted or too hot to touch. The only wind was hot and every footstep would stir up tiny dust devils. Some may say, “Too hot to hunt”, but both of us, being tight, had paid our money and would take our chances.

We crammed into the ranchers pick up, this was before king cabs, and he drove us to a half acre stock tank. The tank was surrounded by light brush, just enough for some cover with smooth banks down to the waters edge. At one end was a dead mesquite tree and the tank was right beside a fresh cut milo field. Perfect!

Taking our stations in the brush, and this brush didn’t provide much shade at all, we didn’t have to wait long for the Doves to come to the water – pop, pop, pop, pop, pop and three birds fell, two into the brush and were quickly retrieved, the third fell into the water. The rancher said, “Don’t worry about that one, there will be a lot more fall in and we’ll get ‘em later!”

The birds continued to pile in on us and the shooting was fun, but the retrieving was hot, hot work. We quickly learned to shoot a bird, mark him in the brush and go pick him up before taking the next shot. Those that fell into the water, we just let them float.

As the doves continued zipping in, we took a quick count and had 42 birds in hand and 21 in the water. Bag and possession limit was 72 for the 3 of us. We picked our next 9 shots carefully and made sure the retrieve was an easy one. Soon we had our limit, with 23 in the water.

Unloading my gun, I started looking around for loose rocks or cow chips to chunk at the birds in the water. The rancher stopped me with, “Jon, how about a swim” as he kicked off his boots and peeled down to his shorts? My dad and I followed his lead and soon there were 3 grown men splashing around in the cool water and chunking the Doves back on to the bank! Not a bad ending to a great hunt!

As we dressed the rancher said, “This sure beats working up a big sweat chunkin’ those birds out!”

Dove season had just opened in the south zone, and having nothing special to do that Saturday, Layla and I decided we’d run down to Crystal City for a hunt. We could be back to our home in Cypress before midnight and then, gas was only around $.60 a gallon!

Our plan was to find a shady spot around the stock tank and ambush the Doves when they came into water. This was a great plan, but arriving at our lease and driving into the stock tank, we found it completely dry! We were pacing around and worrying about what to do when Eldred Lawrence drove up. He too had made identical plans as ours and couldn’t understand why, or how, the tank had dried up so fast.

Walking around and worrying, no shooting yet since it was a good hour before the Doves would water, I noticed a 2 inch hose and curiously followed it to a large pump with an electric motor. The pump was directly wired to an incoming 220 line and beside it was a switch on a fuse box.

Quickly adding 2+2 and getting a solution, I would see if the pump worked and if it would pump water. Hollering for El and Layla to come over, I flipped the switch, the motor hummed the hose “bowed up” and out came water into the tank!

Saying, “Why don’t we just run this hose for and hour or so, until the birds come around, then we can turn it off?” My fellow hunters agreed.

El walked across the tank from us and sat his stool in the dappled shade of a mesquite tree. Layla and I spaced apart and followed suit. The pump kept pumping and soon we had enough water in the bottom of the tank to make a difference. As the pump pumped and the water gushed, the first flight of Doves came zipping in and tried to land in a dead mesquite next to El.

Rising up, he fired, bam, bam, bam and one Dove tumbled down. Here came another bunch toward Layla and I and we knocked down 3. Running over to the switch, I flipped it off as El whirled around and fired away from the tank and the bird tumbled into the brush. He got up to go retrieve it and I returned to my vigil.

“Son of a gun!” Boom, boom, boom, both El and his 12 gauge, autoloader barked. I didn’t see any birds, so I thought a predator perhaps. He called to us, “Jon, Layla, come over and see this rattler.”

Walking over to him, several pieces of a large Rattle Snake were laying 3 or 4 feet from the downed, Dove. We figured the snake made a serious mistake and thought he had found an easy meal.

We had an excellent hunt and in a little over an hour, ended up with 3 limits and no more snakes,. Any bird that fell outside of the tank was carefully retrieved and, during the retrieve, all eyes were firmly locked on the ground!

Wednesday evening, just before dark, I saw two very big bucks in the field behind my house. With my binocs, looking thru the picture window, my estimate was that both of them had a minimum of a 20” spread and had 10-12 points. Both looked like they had dead cedar trees on top of their heads. Having seen some nice bucks this year and even photographing one last week, these two are definitely “Muy Grande”!

Thursday evening, 30 minutes after the sun had gone down, I saw a small buck walking across the field behind my house and thought that I would sneak over to the old house, get my binocs’ and see what I could see. There were plenty of deer! I counted 21, with 3 or 4 small, bucks but no big ‘uns.

Last evening, Layla and I were returning from our town’s annual, “Meet The Eagles” event, where this year’s football teams, cheerleaders, twirlers and band are introduced. Looking out into the field, there stood both big ‘uns, not 50 yards out. They are magnificent deer!

I’ll start feeding corn and deer pellets next week. Luckily, I can buy bulk corn at $7.50 a hundred, while bagged corn is around $10.00 for 50 pounds. What a big deal?

You know, I think it’s terrible that our government has subsidized corn and driven the prices up so much! Ethanol is more of a problem than it’s worth! Sugar cane produces better ethanol, but we have import restrictions on cane! But that is “another story”.

These 2 big ‘uns have really stoked my fires for this year. Hopefully, and I say again, hopefully, I can at least, get a picture of one of them!

Check out the new link to Natural Track Safaris in Kenya. Kenya doesn’t allow hunting and on these safaris, your shots are with a camera, but the scenery and pictures are great!

Before swapping links with Jerry, at Easy Hunting Tips, I went through many of his posts. The blog offers good outdoors tips, is family oriented and is easy reading. I’m happy to add his link!