Rocking September!

My son has had a pretty good month. In my last entry, I wrote about my little man killing his first dove. I actually didn't get to see it as I was falling over my blind, but he shot and the bird fell and he picked it up, so I know it happened. As we sat in a VERY hot dove field this past Saturday, my little dove slayer struck again, and this time I had a front row seat. He gets it honest! He is following a family tradition that goes back several generations. He loves bird hunting. You can tell by the picture above that he is focused in on only one thing. Wackin' and stackin'! While some of his other buddies are in the field chasing bugs or digging in the dirt with complaints of the heat, this boy is constantly looking for a chance to fire his gun and make his Daddy and Papa proud. He is patiently waiting for the day that I will allow him more than one shell at a time in his youth model pump.

I was trying to give him some shots at closer birds, but they were still a little far out of his effective range. I downed one and went out for the retrieve. As I made my way back to the blind, a super floater was headed towards the blind and Reid already had him spotted. The bird sailed right over our set-up and Reid stood, shouldered his gun, aimed, fired, and followed through as the bird fell in a cloud of grey feathers! A very clean kill that was witnessed by everyone sitting in our general area. He chest was poked out with pride as he retrieved his kill to the sounds of hooping and hollering from his fellow hunting partners! It was a good day!

I took the opportunity to try and teach him a life lesson. I could tell that he was really enjoying himself, so I told him that as long as he did well in school and as long as he did what was right, then I would always take him hunting! I hope it sinks in!

My little man is also enjoying a good early soccer season. His team is currently 3-1 and he has scored a goal in all three victories.

I just hope that the next few months will continue to be as good as this one!  Rock on Son!

Tis the Season!

This past Saturday was the opening day of dove season and hopefully the re-opening of this blog. It has been a busy summer, but I have not really had many blog-worthy moments to share with all of you. Now that hunting season is here, I hope that I will have some stories from the field to encourage some page views in this dying publication. The first hunting story of this young season comes to you from a very proud Daddy!

My son Reid is shown above holding his very first dove kill. He shot this bird while it was flying with his youth model Remington 870 pump shotgun. I had been giving him one shell at a time so that he could try and shoot a bird off of the ground. The birds were coming pretty fast and I would not let him shoot. I didn't want him to get frustrated, so I was waiting on a super floater to better his chances. A bird flew over and I raised to shoot. I missed with the first shot and the bird circled hard right. I turned to fire my second shot and missed again. I kept turning and I felt my chair tip out from under me. As I was taking the blind and myself to the ground while trying to keep my shotgun pointing in a safe direction, I heard Reid's gun go off. I looked around in a slight panic to make sure he was alright as I heard him say "I got 'em!!" He put his gun down and ran to where the bird had fallen, picked him up and did a little victory dance! He was so proud of his first kill and so was I.

We went on to kill the limit and called it a very good day!!  What a great way start to what I hope is going to be a very good hunting season!

Tis the season fellow hunters!  Good luck!!