Follow rule No. 1 to prevent endangering other hunters.
Last week, this writer recounted the best dove hunt of my life, when I limited out — 12 back then — in less than a box of shells in under an hour. But even better than my shooting was the organization of the hunt, which was held by a Delta landowner to benefit his son’s high school baseball team. It led to a most pleasurable day, one I will never forget.
Click here to read that column. This week, as promised, we’ll go back to another dove experience I will never forget, but for a different reason. It was awful and ended in less than 30 minutes. After getting shot a third time, I simply left the field. With dove season opening Saturday (Sept. 1), I tell this story to put focus on the need for hunting safety. Here is my painful experience: I had a bad feeling as soon as I sat down on my dove bucket, backed up against a tree line near a corner of the field, looking out at rows of hunters facing me.
I felt worse as soon as the birds starting flying down into the sunflowers, making me a target. The first time I got shot was five minutes in, leaving six bright-red spots on my belly. The second, just two minutes later, didn’t hurt nearly as bad, but a lone pellet chipped my sunglasses and left me shaken. On the third one, I saw the low bird going down and had time to duck and turn.
I got peppered pretty good, but the back of my shooting vest is thick by choice. There was no fourth time. I left the field immediately after the third shot because I had come to terms with reality — there were some fools in the field facing me who: * did not know the No. 1 rule of dove hunting — Do not shoot low-flying birds. * didn’t care that getting shot from 75 yards away hurts — bad. * did not care how many times I stood and hollered: “Please don’t shoot at low birds” and, later, “Quit $%#& shooting me.” Instead of relocating, I took my sore feelings and body, and my ill temper to the truck where I could sulk surrounded by heavy metal.
I did return later, after they had left. My perfect choice of stands, back to the sun and in the center of two primary entry points to the field was just too dangerous. One of the first hunters there, I chose the stand well before the others arrived and took their stands facing me, less than 100 yards away. That I stood and hollered at them to get their attention didn’t keep them from setting up so close. Once the birds came over the trees, they would immediately descend. With hunters in the field facing me and the sun, I was in a bad situation. That some of the hunters were idiots didn’t help.
Turns out it was a dad and his teenage son, plus another grown man, who kept shooting me — and it was the dad who took offense to my cussing them for shooting me. For shooting me three times! He never apologized, and said my language was not setting a good example for his son — and he didn’t want to hear that his actions were setting a dangerous example.
His defense: “Hey, if you dove hunt enough, sooner or later you will get peppered.” Excuse me for getting a little salty, but being peppered by shot falling from a gun fired hundreds of yards away is not the same as being blasted with shot fired 75 yards away and still traveling 1,000 feet per second on a flat trajectory. Dove hunting is a fun sport, enjoyed safely by thousands in Mississippi. Let’s keep it that way. When the season opens Saturday, do not shoot at a bird less than 45 degrees above the horizon. That’s easy enough to figure Using your arms, hold one parallel to the ground — 0 degrees. Hold the other straight up — 90 degrees.
The point halfway between is 45 degrees. Don’t shoot any lower than that. Also, never assume the locations of other hunters, and never shoot at an injured bird flying just above or sitting on the ground. There are plenty of other firearm and dove-hunting safety rules to follow, including establishing safe zones of fire around others and never loading or unloading your gun in the presence of others. I just preach loudest about not shooting at low birds because — and trust me on this — getting shot is no fun.
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