Entertainment Sep 2007
Entertainment
September 2007
Welcome to The Plaza Pages Newsletter San Angelo Texas
‘Tis the season’
Area Dove Hunters Ready to Take Aim
Some hunters squat in the middle of a milo field looking upward.
Others hide under a dead mesquite tree on a turn row.
Even more will just sit on a tailgate with friends - although shooting from a vehicle is illegal - as interested in another cold beverage as another flying bird.
It's dove hunting season in West Texas: The first season of the hunting year and one known as much for socializing as for downing doves. Thousands of hunters will be out in the fields, the opening day of dove season, looking to bag their limit - if they can find the birds.
When the hunting is good, camouflaged hunters will line a fence blasting at birds as empty shell casings pile up around their feet. When it's not, they will stare at the sky, shotguns laying across their laps as they cuss the hot weather.
There's not much difference between a good hunt and a bad one. Even if the birds aren't flying, you will still have fun hanging out with your friends.
''You get to shoot a lot more dove hunting,''. ''It's not one of those things where you shoot once and are done. And the best thing is just watching the kids hunt.''
Dove hunting is second behind whitetail deer hunting in terms of hunter popularity.
So what's the forecast for this year's hunt?
''I'm sure in places where there are some sunflowers and milo, there will be some doves. And around town there will be some white-wing shootings.
Steven Hoelscher, owner of White Wings Galore Dove Hunts, is lucky enough to have prime hunting real estate just east of San Angelo. He leases about 200 acres of land, both his and that of a few other farmers.
Hoelscher doesn't hunt the entire spread every day. Hunters stake out a field or two and leave the rest idle. That way, hunters don't ''wear out their welcome'' with the birds, Hoelscher said.
He expects 250 hunters to be on his leases. He hosts a social cookout the first three evenings of dove season after the hunts are over so the hunters can enjoy themselves and meet one another.
Hoelscher's land is in the middle of a flyway, he said, and tens of thousands of birds fly back and forth across the harvested fields of milo, a type of grain. Hunters from Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth have come to hunt there, he said.
Hoelscher estimated the birds eat about 1,000 pounds of seed per day during the growing season. Landowners make more money leasing hunts than harvesting the crops, he said.
He called the white-wing population around one harvested field he leases ''astonishing.''
''Mourning dove fly by in singles or doubles,'' he said. ''White-wings run 20 or 40 to a pack. So which one do you shoot? The really smart hunter shoots the one that will land closest to you.''
Dove Hunting Facts
2006-2007 Texas Hunting Season Central Zone
Dove Hunting Zone in West Texas TOM GREEN - San Angelo (county seat)
Dove - (Central Zone) September 1 - October 30 and December 26 - January 4.
Daily bag limit: 12 mourning, white-winged, and white-tipped (white fronted) doves in the aggregate to include not more than two whitetips. Possession Limit: Twice the daily bag limit.
The game: Mourning and white-winged doves. Mourning doves are a medium-sized, somewhat slender bird with a thin neck. White-winged doves are larger, chunky birds with a bold white wing patch, which is visible at rest.
Bag limit: Daily bag limit is 12 birds total aggregate of white-winged and mourning doves. Possession limit is twice the daily bag limit. Hunters can have 24 birds in their possession but can kill only 12 per day.
Edited by Norman Bliss