Dove Hunting the Ranch 2017

As per the norm, come Labor Day week-end, we host an annual dove hunt here on the Ranch.  The participants have changed over the years, and sometimes folks' schedules will just not let them attend.  Well, for the past two years in a row now, there have been less than adequate doves to call this a "hunt" by any stretch of the imagination.  Knowing this to be the case, Kruger borrowed Hester's auto-throwing trap for some entertainment.  And man did we have FUN!

Most of the gang.  Missing are Davey & Pa Jerry (who left early), and MPK who took the photo.

The morning started off with a breakfast of biscuits and gravy at 0700.  I changed up the recipe to use butter for the 'fat' instead of the meat fat for the gravy.  I must say, it was quite tasty.  We then broke up into four groups.  Davey, RePhil, and Aaron went to the pond.  Kathy, Pa Jerry, and Jon stayed at the house.  Nick, Eric, and Zach went to the prairie grass.  And, Alex, Tony, and I walked the waterways.  The morning dew was HEAVY.  Us walkers got wet all the way to our underwear.  Good thing I wasn't wearing any!  

We "hunted" until about 9:30 and slew close to 5 doves.  As I said, doves were few and far between.  So we set up the trap and started playing games.

The first game was Knock-out, where everyone was their own team.  The second game was Protection, where your teammates tried to keep you from getting eliminated by cleaning up your bird or the pieces.  And then we just started throwing multiple birds for people to shoot.

It was a good time.  We blew through almost 600 shotgun shells, three cases of birds, but only two beers!  Hard to imagine.

We came back to the house, cleaned our five birds, and then ate a lunch of turtle soup left over from our Texas trip.  It had just the perfect blend of heat and sweet.  Yet another awesome meal!  

Just so you know how much this hunt means to people, Aaron flew in from Washington, D.C. just for the day.  But Eric came back from California for the week-end.  That's dedication right there.  And Brother Sykes tried to buy his way back next year by bringing a bottle of Knob Creek bourbon.  Winning!

Enjoy the photos and videos.  Thanks to everyone for taking these.

Playing Knock-Out down the line.

Playing Protection with only three shooters at a time.

Just having fun shooting.  Check out the sweet auto-throwing trap!

Taking break #1

Taking Break #2

All done for the day.  See?  No beers.

The aftermath.  Empty shotshells and boxes ready to be reloaded.


Here is the YouTube video link for Eric knocking me out of the game:
https://youtu.be/5Rb3uyalJQA
Eric is not allowed to come back next year.

This video includes a swear word at the end because 3 shooters fire 6 or 7 rounds total and never hit a single clay pigeon...too funny...
https://youtu.be/PwM5JKxjrow

This video is in super-slow-motion and tracks the shooters, not the bird.
https://youtu.be/tLeu177Jyko

In this last video, MPK was laughing at all of our guns going up at once, so he took this.  The trap goes off the first time and no bird flies, but the guns do go up, just like Michael said.  Zach calls him a Richard Cranium.  Then MPK throws two birds.  In both cases, Nick and I shoot simultaneously.  Watch the first two guns closely.  You can see the first gun shoot (me) and you can see the second gun (Nick) eject shells.  It sounds like only ONE shot, but we both shot both of the birds.  We are so quick on the draw that no one else even shoots in this video.  Awesome sauce...
https://youtu.be/BGhujZPFI-M




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