This year I was invited to hunt with Kennett Fire Marshall Scott Tutor. Since I haven't shot a gun since last season, I decided it would be wise to get some practice in before the hunt. Last week, the 2009 Dove Seasoned opened on Tuesday morning. I did not make the opening morning hunt, but I was able to get two or three hunts in before the rescheduled hunt with Scott (the original hunt was for opening morning, and I was unable to make it).

During these two or three hunts, which were accompanied by my younger brother Jase and Senath police officer Jerad Callahan, I realized that I had become a little rusty with a shotgun. We ended each day with one dove each, but shooting just under a box of shotgun shells. This type of hunting was in a large 80 acre watermelon field that had been recently disced. This is the type of hunting that I had always participated in. We arrived in the morning around sun rise, found a spot near the edge of the field to sit, kept quiet and still, and waited for the dove to fly over head.

This was a lot different than the hunting in Kennett with Scott. On the day of the hunt, me, Jase, Matt Williams, Steven Langdon, and Garrett Williams (Matt's younger brother) arrived at Tutor's house.

We followed Scott to the area we would be hunting, which was behind Ken Mo. He had previously called the owner of the land and received permission to hunt the property. The owner's only request was for us to pick up our empty shells.

Upon arrival, I took a visual of the area and assumed we would be walking back into a field area a distance away from the buildings. I was incorrect, we sat in a small area spread out along the brush on the opposite side of the area.

As we took our seats, the dove began to fly over head. We took several shots at the birds flying in the skies, but were unable to hit anything at first (I blame this on the new environment).

I look over at Scott, who is standing on the opposite side of the area from the rest of us, and he takes aim, fires one shot, and drops a bird. He did this several times, enough for Matt to ask me what kind of gun he was shooting.

As we continued the hunt, everyone really enjoyed the new atmosphere and the new style of dove hunting. Scott remained standing throughout much of the hunt and the birds would just continue to fly over, whether we were standing or sitting. We would also yell at one another to inform the other guy of a dove approaching. Several times Scott would yell over to me, "Up," which I knew meant there was a bird up above my head. We all began to use this technique and it made for a fun afternoon. Before this hunt, I had no idea people hunted so close to the city.

Overall it was a great time and we all walked away with some birds, except for Jase, who vowed to redeem himself at a later date.