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Chris McCotter
Special to the Rappahannock News
Sept. 2 has to be one of my favorite days of the year. While the afternoons were so hot and dry, now some of the mornings have a cool flavor.
If you live in the country, start paying attention to medium-sized brown birds sitting on power lines round about 4 p.m. These are doves, some of the darnedest birds The Maker ever put on this earth for shooting enthusiasts to pursue.
Sure, I look forward to my first crow hunt, my first goose hunt, a hog hunt I have planned, and especially to the first quail hunt I’ll take when the weather cools further, but that first Saturday in September is special because it’s opening day of dove season, which runs until Sept. 23.
At about 12 inches from * the tip of the beak to tail, the common mourning dove is a worthy shooting challenge. Remember what they look like sitting on that wire or on a dead snag, because you won’t see them like that during hunting hours.
Most of the time they come in so fast there’s no time to point to your hunting buddy or swing the gun barrel across your body to attempt a shot as they whir by at nearly 45 mph. By the time you do get off a shot, the birds are often flying the gauntlet of the dove field and into another shooter’s equally iffy range. . I did a bunch of bird hunt
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