Never hunted doves before? Here, in a nutshell, is how it goes: camp out with a bunch of good guys, telling and hearing semi-truthful stories; wake up before dawn. Set up along the edge of a field filled with sunflowers and other attractive food sources, waiting comfortably in a chair and watching the skies. Then, as dawn breaks, see hundreds of dove zoom in to feed. Try to shoot these mini-F16s as they rocket around. Hear your buddies cheer when you connect and jeer when you miss (last year we had a hit to miss ratio of about 1:20, even if you count Paul's double on a pair of sparrows found guilty of impersonating a game bird). Break for lunch, then return before dusk and repeat. That evening grill dove breast nuggets wrapped in bacon and enjoy sitting around camp telling and hearing more semi-truthful stories. Dove hunting is second only to deer hunting in popularity among TX hunters -- come find out why!

The dove lease for 2007 is $200 for a season pass, providing assigned fields for the first two weeks followed by season long access to all fields.

Season pass holders can bring one guest on one trip, but not until after the first two weeks are over. Young kids can hunt with a pass holder for free.

The lease, which consists of about a half-dozen fields in Young and Throckmorton Counties (NW of the metroplex), is operated by George "Puddin'" Green. George says the fields are looking very good given the heavy rainfalls this year, so the season looks promising. As always, there is a chance that a cold front or rain on the opening weekend will dampen the action, but even with last year's drought we had a fairly good opening day.

Season opens September 1st, hunting dove requires a hunting license with migratory bird stamp (I'll check all the new regulations in August to verify no changes), and the bag limit is 15 birds per day, assuming you can ever hit those little suckers. If you would like to join us but don't have a shotgun, we can probably find one for you to borrow.