Mornings On The Marsh: My Brother Across the Border: A Texas Dove Hunting Excursion

Flashback: October 21/22 2013

Punching that accelerator down, all the way down, due west on I-10. The reason I loaded up and rolled out of Baton Rouge really wasn’t under the best circumstances. However, I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to for the world.

Almost two years ago my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. Since then she has been spending weeks of her life with her sisters in Houston while receiving treatment at one of the world’s best hospitals- the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Treatment Center, a truly remarkable place. My mom was visiting for a routine checkup (she had a tumor removed off of her bronchial tube about a year ago) and I decided, against her will, I was going to be by her side while she went through the throws. I surprised her, and for the first time in a very long time, all was right in my world. To couple this joyous occasion, I had the wonderful opportunity to go dove hunting with my favorite cousin, Dusty.

Did I mention my girlfriend tagged along?

Dusty is 33 years old and has been a huge influence on my life. Not only are we identical physically, we also think the exact same way. It’s pretty weird. But I digress. Dusty invited me to join him on his company’s hunting lease for an afternoon and morning of dove hunting. Before I continue I just have to say some of the wordage and images in the following are graphic. With that, I’ll continue.

I’ve never been dove hunting before. I was too young to engage in the southeast Texas right-of-passage before moving out of the state. Upon arrival in Houston, I headed over to the local Wal-Mart and purchased a non-resident, 5 day hunting license. I was able to purchase this license because I have taken a hunter's education course back in Virginia and the certification also permits me to hunt in the other 50 United States. With that, we were ready to rock.

After a drive from suburban Houston, we arrived in Katy, TX, about 20 miles north of the city. We parked the truck, grabbed our bags, and began walking up a dirt road towards a pond at the intersection of two pastures full of cattle. It was at this intersection we set up two MOJO decoys. These decoys are life size decoys that have a battery operated motor that flaps wings to attract birds flying over. The decoys bring birds into shotgun range and give hunters the opportunity to harvest the birds. I’ve duck hunted with these decoys before and I cannot sing their praise enough. They’re cheap, easy to maintain, and will bring scores of birds into the kill zone. BUY THEM.

The best 20 bucks any hunter will ever spend.

After 30 minutes we had our first groups come in and we opened fire. Three birds down. From there on out we walked pasture to pasture attempting to spook birds. Our attempts were unsuccessful but we were far from discouraged.

On the hunt.

The next morning the story was same. Drive in, walk up, set up the MOJOs, let things settle in and open fire. We walked field to field and shot a few more birds, but during hour 2 I experienced something like never before. While walking up on a bush about chest height, I had a dove fly out approximately 6 feet off the ground. I raised my Remington Express 870 to my shoulder, and pulled the trigger. The BBs grazed the dove and it fell into a shrub a few feet away. When I walked up I discovered the bird nesting after being wounded, but not fatally. Dusty then told me in order to kill the dove we needed to decapitate it. He reassured me it would be extremely easy. Dusty held the bird; I put a firm grip on its head and pulled. The head came off extremely easy and that was that.

There's always a time to try new things.

It may sound gruesome, but if there is one thing that hunters know, it is this- at some point, a hunter will wound an animal and to properly and humanely end its life, they’ll have to get hands-on. In this case, the statement was literal. We concluded the morning hunt with 4 more dove in the bag and made our way back to Houston.

Any hunt I participate in, I use as a learning experience. Even if I leave empty handed, I’m always collecting and analyzing data, as well as experience, ultimately refining my technique, with hopes that it will one day assist me in my future career as a wildlife law enforcement agent. These hunts were no exception. Enjoy the rest of the pictures and videos. More to come here folks, until then, good hunting.

This video shows Dusty and I returning to our MOJO decoys after hunting in the adjacent pasture. When walking up we saw a dove land next to the decoy. We approached the dove, maintaining a 25-30 yard parallel interval knowing it would fly into one of our target pictures. Unfortunately, Dusty had the drop on this guy.