More birds than I thought there were going to be. No limits but the guys got a little shooting in. Biggest group I saw was about 20 birds, most were two's and three's. Come on next cold front.

Had a few birds coming to water this past weekend, but the real reason to go out was to give my 14 month old Lab (his name is Gauge) his maiden voyage in the field with live fire and real birds. I've been working with him all summer, and I couldn't be happier. The first bird went down hard, but still had life. Gauge was Johnny on the spot to the bird, but didn't quite know what to do. This was his first experience with a soft feathery thing in his mouth, (not the rubber dummy he is accustomed to) AND it was flapping. It took a bit of coaxing to get him to grab and hold it, but he figured it out. Bird two was folded in flight, Gauge had the mark, and retrieved on command, brought it back half way, and then decided to play with it a bit and spit the feathers out. PROGRESS, and only the 2nd bird! The next few followed a similar pattern, fetch, retrieve part way back, and drop the bird, clear his mouth of feathers, and then after some coaxing, bring it close.

But buy the time we had 9-10 birds in the bag, he knew the routine. Watch the sky, watch dad kill one bird out of four he shot at, and retrieve. He LOVED it, he had a very special dinner for his hard work, and he slept like a baby. Looking forward to many years of memories with this fella.

I have never hunted at Stompy's place, but I hope to some day. For a man who has a commercial interest in selling dove hunts, it is great to see his honest reports.

We hunted in Jones County last two weekends near Noodle Texas. Was hit and miss. Not too many birds... Best hunting out there is usually in Oct.