Beretta Pintail 12 GA. – Flight cancelled!

Took the annual trip to Arizona for the dove opener this year. With all the rains that occurred from 10/04 – 4/05 I was hopeful that it would be a good year. There was plenty of water and food out in the deserts, enough that some of the birds were able to achieve three successful hatches. I crossed my fingers and said a prayer that the thunderstorms we seem to get every August wouldn’t chase the birds down to Mexico. My buddy Joe and I arrived the day before the opener and scouted that evening. We found an alfalfa field with literally hundreds of birds in it. We vowed to return the next morning. The anticipation of the next morning made it difficult to sleep that night. We rose at 3:30 am and made it to our pre-scouted field by 4:15 only to find it adorned with signs reading “NO HUNTING NO TRESPASSING”. To say that I was both disappointed and ticked is an understatement. I was disappointed that the landowner chose to post his field, although I certainly understand why. I suppose hunters have brought this on themselves. My experience down there is that guys leave spent shotshells and trash all over the place, so if I had land I might be inclined to post it too. More likely, though, I’d leave a sign that said, “Call this number for permission to hunt this land. Violators will be shot on sight and fed to the hogs.” Or something to that effect. I was ticked because the guy waited until late in the evening before the opener to install his signs. It’s no secret that a lot of folks are down there looking for a place to hunt and it takes a real tool to post after folks have done their scouting. Anyway, we searched and found an alfalfa field a ¼ mile away and had the shoot of our lives. The hunting, where we were, was absolutely epic. I easily shot a limit within an hour and could have taken three more if I had been inclined to break the law. Even Joe, who couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, shot a limit. Later in the day while back in town we talked to a lot of other hunters. Very few limited and many didn’t even get any shots. Most were green with envy when we showed them the load of birds we’d shot. I’ll tell you, that smug feeling of superiority is satisfying.