Dove Season

[mr surveyor]

....I wish

Since Wyn and Jocko had to bring it up......who else (like me) can't wait for dove season? For the last 4 years a group of six of us have been making a 350 trip to the Western part of our little state:D for a three day dove hunt, in addition to hunting a day here and there along through the season. Prior to the start of our annual once a year "big trip", I was a dedicated fisherman for about 20 years, but have since devoted my resources more to firearms and hunting. I finally calculated that my boat (and it's predecessors) was nothing but a hole in the water to throw money into, and trailoring 2-3 times a week to one of a half dozen lakes was becomming a lot more work that I had ever thought it would. When I finally got back into a bird field 4 years ago and remembered how relaxing it could be, I was again hooked. A couple of my fishing and hunting buddies still fish one a month or so, but none of them (us) go 2-3 times per week like in our younger days. May be an age thing, but I'd much rather be sitting out in an over cut maize field "wasting" a case of 7-1/2 shot .... even on those humbling 20mph West Texas wind assisted low flyers



Who else?



surv:)

[wyntrout]

I haven't hunted anything since I left Abilene, Texas (Dyess AFB) to go to Germany (West) in early 1983. Dove hunting was really fun there, when we had a place to hunt. I never could see paying for hunting. Damn, I can go to the damn grocery store and buy meat.
But, I did do that -- doves are better than them little round clay thingies 'cause they duck and weave... and they're fast, especially with the wind at their backs... and slightly better tasting. :D
Wynn

Oh, yeah. The boat thing -- been there done that... and I do have a t-shirt or two... and a few other odds and ends of stuff. I bought a 21+ ft walkaround cabin type and must have spent $4k outfitting it. The mapping GPS was a big chunk. And... I just had to have the latest, greatest engine by OMC -- a Johnson 175 HP Ficht Engine -- high-pressure fuel-injected 2-stroke. That and the 150 HP versions sunk OMC. I had a software update, the top end replaced, the engine blew up and the powerhead was replaced by OMC. The second time it happened OMC was toast and I had to pay ~$5800 for a rebuilt powerhead. It was definitely time to bail, and I did -- bad experience! Here I sit water everywhere -- the St John's River, the Intracoastal WaterWay, and the Atlantic Ocean... and not even a surfboard. So much for the boating dream!:(

[Dietrich]

The only way I would miss opening day of the dove season would be to attend my own funeral.I hunt with a bunch of people who all meet in the small town of Snow Hill,N.C. The morning hours are spent telling lies and seeing folks you haven`t seen since last year.The men that host the hunt have a pig pickin`/chicken pickin` and you eat around 11:00 a.m. . Then you pile in the trucks and hit the fields all the while laughing at the last lies you heard.I,of course,only listen to the lies as I am an honest man and would never lie.:angel:

[jocko]

If I didn't have my yellow lab as my dove hunting partner, I would have quit a long time ago. Just somethingh about a man and his dog, expecially mine who did most of all the work!!

[wyntrout]

Lies, slight exaggerations... embellishments! That's it -- embellishments! Those make the story better!
Oh, I was here all by myself last night, rather early in the morning... while most of you were snug in your beds with visions of the Kahr purchase dancing in your heasds... and welcomed one of our newest members JoannaHughes. I warned her about you guys... told her I was the only one with any sense on this forum, and not to believe what you guys said about me.:D
Wynn:w00t:

[mr surveyor]

gosh, Wyn.... you really can be truthful when you want to:rolleyes:


surv:D

[wyntrout]

It's hard for me to lie... well. I didn't lie to her though. I left a message at her User CP/Info page or whatever. I told her there were a few whackos (I like the added "H", 'cause I pronounce it whack'-oh) and that I was one of them!:p
I couldn't lie to a skool teacher lady!:rolleyes: Besides, she'd find out soon enough!:blah::w00t:
Wynn:D

[bayoutrigger]

Boats: The two happiest days of your life, the day you get it and the day you sell it!

Doves: Use to hunt every year south of the boarder. Now family and friends opening day hunt on my sons farm.

[jocko]

Boats: The two happiest days of your life, the day you get it and the day you sell it!

Doves: Use to hunt every year south of the boarder. Now family and friends opening day hunt on my sons farm.

life expectancy of a dove is 8-11 months. with 8 being the biggest majority..:blah::blah:

A dove recipet to feast on: 12 to 24 dove breasts (best if deboned even) 2 coups of sour cream, 5 oz chipped or dried beef, cut into small peaces. 10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup, one small can mushrooms.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees, place chipped beef in bottom of 9 x 11 baking dish. top with dove breast or peaces, Mix sour cream and mushrooms soup with mushrooms and poor over breasts. Bake uncovered for 3 hours (this entire recipe can also be put into a baking bag and put in the oven for 3 hours). trust me , even the most finicky of wild game eaters will not know what they are eating. Taste beyond belief. I also throw the hearts of all the doves in with this recipe to..

[wyntrout]

Yeah, I got my first wife to cook mine. It has been a long time ago, but I remember frying them a bit and something to do with mushroom soup. I felt that I ought to eat what I killed, but I drew the line at them skeets. I don't think there was enough of any kind of fixin's to make those things taste good.
Wynn:D

[wyntrout]

For some reason or 'nother, I just thought of something different. I'll bet that most of you never saw the sun rise in the west. Thought not! As lead navigator bringing a cell of three Buffs back from a TDY in England, we had to do a celestial navigation leg on the way back... filling training squares and such. We all precomputed three-star fixes and got the sextants mounted. it was night when we planned this, but when we were looking at the stars, it was getting lighter outside! The combination of us flying west and south from a higher latitude and close to 500 mph, the sun rose above the horizon and kept getting higher in the west. We had to re-compute and shoot the sun for a less accurate fix -- one star and DR, or dead reckoning -- using true airspeed and heading.
Oh, Dead Reckoning is a backup using time and direction with best guess or forecast winds, if you didn't have doppler radar to give you the winds. Generally on celestial nav legs, you couldn't use the doppler and got a "celestial wind" computed off the fix, and used that for your next DR -- not real accurate. Dead reckoning got it's name from if you reckoned wrong, you were dead.
Anyhow, true story about the western sunrise.
Now what the heck were we talking about?:rolleyes:
Wynn

[mr surveyor]

food:)

we were talking about Man Food:D

my favorite dove recipe:

stuff a wad of creme cheese and a slab or two of fresh jalapeno in the breast cavity, wrap the assembly with bacon, secured with toothpicks.... then dry rub with a mix of cayenne pepper, brown sugar (and other stuff), and place on the grill with mesquite wood, pecan wood or hickory.... turn often, until done.....

we (our group) still have about 300 doves in the freezers, enough for 3 more "cookin's" before this coming September's chance to resupply.

The "Stumpwater Supper Club" will have to plan a gathering pretty soon....

Dang, I'm getting hungry now!


surv

edit to add: the inexpensive round charcoal grills work great for this.... just get an extra wire grill top to make a perfect set up.... place the birds (or whatever requires a lot of turning) on the primary wire grill top - with handles up.... when it's loaded up, place the second wire grill, handles down, on top - sandwiching the birds inside..... wire them together and place over the fire. With welding gloves, it's easy to turn all 60-70 birds over in one flip of the grill top....perfect even cooking for both sides

[wyntrout]

Breast cavity? We are talking doves here, right? Dang, I just stuck my thumb under the breast and ripped it out.:eek: The rest was coyote food. Did you eat the wings and "drumsticks", too?:rolleyes:
Wynn :D

[mr surveyor]

breast cavity = backside of the breast bone


yep, we thumb the breast off, twist and snap the wings, wash and bag.


sorry for the confusion on the use of the word "cavity"

[wyntrout]

Sorry, just trying to inject a little humor, too. I never tried them roasted on a stick over a campfire, either -- very dry and chewy, I'd bet -- good survival food, but if you're packing a shotgun, you could do better. Maybe a nice jackrabbit, '****, or 'possum... or even the ubiquitous( like this word?) armadillo, though they don't look very tasty. I saw that Bizarre Foods guy eat one of those down in Mexico -- armadillo. I don't recall ever seeing a live one in Texas. We sure have too many of the danged things down here. They can really dig and undermine patios, small buildings, and air conditioner pads, etc.
Wynn:D

OMG "'co*n" edited out... as in short for raccoon.

[mr surveyor]

in the "Great Northeast" (of Texas, of course:D), we are blessed with an abundance of dillo's, c00ns, possums, skunks, nutria, beavers, ferral hogs, and other delicacies. I have eaten a taste or more of most all of the above (except skunk), and all would do in a survival situation quite well. Actually, in my younger days, I had a real love for grilled c00n and baked c00n.

Yeh, dillo's can be a real nuisance, but can't hold a candle to the damage of ferral hogs.

Come on Dove Season:D


surv

[wyntrout]

I never had occasion to try any of that except maybe the wild boar, that I know of. I had wild boar in France and Germany... and frog legs and snails and beef and calf tongue, and I even tried "sweetbreads" -- too fatty! The snails weren't great, but the langue de boeuf or langue de veau and the grenouilles were pretty tasty. The Europeans are big on game animals in the restaurants.
The Germans and French, I guess, had some neat "rules" for restaurants. You weren't supposed to bring kids under the age of 12, but you could bring your dog if it was well-behaved! Man, I can really ramble!:rolleyes:
Wynn:D

After almost 9 years at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas, I managed to get out of SAC for three years and went to Zweibrücken, Germany (West) to man a command post, where I met my (next and last!) wife-to-be (24 year anniversary next month!):)

[mr surveyor]

well, now you done gone from winged creatures to terrestial varmints to real live "sea food"...... ain't nothing better than fried frog legs and bawled mudbugs and blackened catfish....THAT'S "sea food":)

Bring on the Birds:D

surv

[Bawanna]

Ain't Nutria like a rodent,a rat on steroids or something. Seems like I heard of them in Louisianna and seen some on Lawman, the swat guys were trying to shoot em with 22's.
Haven't ever et skunk myself but alot of that other stuff makes for fine eating.

[wyntrout]

Love mudbugs and fried catfish -- not big on "blackened" stuff. Once at my brother's in Natchez, MS, we got 20# for four of us from a popular street vendor and I ate more than my share... ummm... hard work, though... get so hungry peeling them. I like almost anything that comes out of the water -- pond, river, or ocean -- no eel, though, greasy to me. Sea food, eat food. I'm always looking at the seafood on menus when traveling. I remember "suishi" pizza on Okinawa -- squid and octopus. :D
Wynn

[jocko]

and what could be better than fried mountain oysters with a six pack!!!!

Being Italian born and living in an Old Italian town where many came over from the old country. I had an ol neighbor across the street from me and he would take allthe doves our group shot. Sometimes we wild bringhim a couple hundred at a time even, as we didkn't want them at that time. Now if you ever lived in Italy or around there, birds never lived long enough to grow feathers back then, as the Italians killed anything that could fly and ate them. Well this ol timer, would pluck, singh every dove and clean them like a little capon, he would take the gizzard even and slice it open and take the sand and stuff out of it. Basically he wasted nothing. Then he would take each little capon and put in in one of those little school type milk cartons for kids and fill it with water and freeze it. he had two freeziers full of these little milk cartons. I know it took him 15 minutes at least to clean each dove like that but they looked like a peace of art when done to. His comment was that in Italy we never wasted one part of any bird.

yes I choose to pop the breast out and keep the heart and throw the rest away. We are a wasteful country no doubt. He also made the fienst home made salami and wine in the area to. I never went without either from him. Doves for wine seemed a good trade. Doves for salami, was an excellent trade..