On opening day of dove season, Vince Dye and I met Don and Linda Hansen on one of the Kansas Conservation Department dove fields. We knew in advance that we had to have non toxic shot. Don reloads bismuth and Vince and I had steel. Vince was shooting a 20 gauge and I had a 28.
Tur Bo pointing a pigeon.
Sally pointing a pigeon.
Tur Bo pointing a pigeon.
We got there in what seemed like the middle of the night but in reality was only about 45 minutes before daylight. Don had been the first hunter there and had set up on the east side of the field. Vince and I set up on the south side with a Mojo dove in between us. Before daylight the doves started flying.
As we sat waiting more people kept coming into the field. A guy set up just to Vince’s left. We had a highway a hundred yards south of us and with the guy on his left and me on his right Vince had almost no room to shoot. I offered to move down or we could move back although we had people behind us, too. Vince had brought his English cocker, Maggie. He really wanted to work her more than shoot.
Maggie has been duck hunted and she’s been along on some quail hunts but never dove hunting, before today. When she’s duck hunting she has a large bird and most times a splash of water to mark the fall. On the quail hunts we are close and if she doesn’t see the bird fall we walk her close.
Maggie is not very tall and Vince kept her in the tall cover and she couldn’t mark the fall, very well. The doves were flying good and I was getting some shots. Out of the first 5 shots I knocked down 4 doves. Maggie found them all. It was work getting her to stay where we were wanting her. There were guns going off all over and she wanted to find them all.
My shooting didn’t continue that well all morning but I did shoot pretty well and was really surprised how well 5/8 of an ounce of steel number 7’s will kill doves. In 30 or 40 minutes I had what I thought was a limit of doves. I unloaded my gun and sat in my chair to wait for Vince to kill his doves. I noticed that where I was sitting was still restricting where Vince could shoot so I counted my birds again and went to the truck.
Don and Linda were talking to the game warden as I got there. We had all seen him pull into the field about shooting time. Don had killed his limit and had them lying on his tail gate. I dropped my tail gate as the game warden came up and started laying my birds out. I stopped long enough to give him my license and HIP stamp. I kept pulling the birds out of my vest. When I pulled the fifteenth one out I could feel another bird still in the vest. I told the game warden as I laid the sixteenth one on the tail gate that I had miss counted.
Vince, when I had shot my last bird had only shot three times. Had I known that I was over he could have taken the bird or I was far enough away that I could have dropped it in the weeds. I thought I was legal.
The game warden was a nice young man and I didn’t get his name. He still had my hunting license and asked for my drivers license. As I gave them to him he said, “I really think you made a mistake but I have a job to do.” I agreed with him.
Sally near and Luke. Divided find.
He went to his truck and was gone a long time. I used the time to put my gun in the case and to get some water to drink. He came back after what seemed a long time and handed me my licenses and said, “I’m just going to give you a warning.” That made me feel really good. I didn’t mind the thought of having to pay a fine, or for the money part of it but killing over the limit is like stealing. It’s taking more than you have coming. I didn’t want that feeling. Although I had killed an extra bird it as a mistake. I’m used to making mistakes. I’m not used to stealing.
After a while Vince and Maggie, the cocker spaniel, came out. They didn’t quite have a limit but the game warden checked him on my tail gate. When he saw Vince didn’t have a limit he asked if I cared if he gave him the dove he had taken from me. Of course not. He said he would be out all day and as warm as it was it would spoil.
Vince told me that Maggie had really come on, on the doves. He had moved her to where she could see them fall and she got really good at marking. He didn’t have to do anything but send her.
Vince or Don neither could go back the next day. I thought I would go and I even made a reservation for the next day. Saturday night I told my wife I thought I would just sleep in the next morning. When I woke, I thought, “I should have gone”.
Just a couple of hours later I started feeling bad. Then it got worse. I knew if I went anywhere to get checked out on Sunday, and especially a Sunday during a three day weekend, there would be almost no one there. I toughed it out.
Sunday night I didn’t sleep except for a couple of hours. About noon Monday, Labor Day, I went to Urgent Care. When the doctor looked at me he said, “You better go to an Emergency Room”. So we went to St. Luke’s.
A covey roost I saw on Sandy Sanders.
I knew I had a gall stone. I had no idea it was huge. St. Luke’s ran a C.T. scan and said my gall bladder had to come out. They put me in the hospital.
Tuesday morning they took it out. The gall stone was supposed to be 19 centimeters. Before the operation the doctor said it would take about 30 minutes. My gall bladder was attached in two places and he had to crush the stone to get it out through the small holes, one of which he opened up to a larger size. The operation took well over an hour.
I was sore when I woke up but almost immediately started feeling better. They were amazed that I had no symptoms of this before. Maybe I did and didn’t know what they were. I had some lower back pain and a little pain in my calves. Wasn’t bad. Since the operation I haven’t had any. I hope that fixed what I thought were just pains I had to learn to live with.
The operation wasn’t the worst of it. They kept me in the hospital from Monday until 8:00 pm Thursday. Four long days.
I didn’t put the gall bladder stuff in for sympathy but to let you know why it will be a while before I work puppies. I really enjoy the puppies but I can’t bend over without pain right now.
If this does take care of the back pain and the pain in the calves I will be hard to keep up with this fall.
Mann in the brush, pointing a pigeon.
Babe pointed her first pigeon.
Mann again.