Who is ready to shoot some birds?


I know I am & it will probably rain on us the first weekend too.

Yeah!.....


Who has a place I can hunt at? Lol

Apparently Whitewing season starts on SUNDAY instead of Saturday this year. There was a piece in the paper about it. I don't do Whitewing hunting anymore but I used to and enjoyed the heck out of it. You used to just go out into the country, stop on the side of the road and hunt! There were always lots of people lining the roads. Even in elementary school, kid's dads would come check them out of school early to go get a good spot. Actually quail hunting is more fun...but to old for that too. Hope you guys have fun!

There are some really neat pictures of the dove hunting in the RGV from the 30's through what might be the late 60's, apparently it was a major event in the Valley for decades. Was it like that when you were younger?

We moved here in the mid 80's so by that time it was only on private land and or by lease.

Dove hunting even then was a lot of fun.

Yes it was just like that in the 50s. If I remember correctly it was that way till I went to A&M in the early 60s. Seems like everything changed during that time. I got married and moved to SA for about 10 years from 67 - 77 and when we moved back you had to have somebody's permission to hunt on their land. It always used to rain about time for Whitewing hunt so it was major humid and hot. I remember my dad had to sit in the car one hunt because he got too hot.

As I said the hunting was more fun by that time to hunt Quail. My dad was good friends with the County Judge and we used to hunt quail on his ranch out north of Edinburg in our old WWII jeep. Those were the days. I don't even have a shot gun any more!

I will actually be in the Valley opening weekend for the first time in a long time. Hope to get out there Sunday for a bit.

Hope you have a good time and shoot one for me!

So who is throwing a TexAgs South Texas Board Hunt? We can call it the TASTBH?

But seriously!

oldvalleyrat said:

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Yes it was just like that in the 50s. If I remember correctly it was that way till I went to A&M in the early 60s. Seems like everything changed during that time. I got married and moved to SA for about 10 years from 67 - 77 and when we moved back you had to have somebody's permission to hunt on their land. It always used to rain about time for Whitewing hunt so it was major humid and hot. I remember my dad had to sit in the car one hunt because he got too hot.

As I said the hunting was more fun by that time to hunt Quail. My dad was good friends with the County Judge and we used to hunt quail on his ranch out north of Edinburg in our old WWII jeep. Those were the days. I don't even have a shot gun any more!

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Sorry meant to reply earlier.

We didn't arrive in the RGV until the mid-80's, but my Mom was born in Alice and my grandfather worked the oilfields in the Valley a lot from the 30's through the early 70's. He had big tales of the dove opener and hunts down here and it was just like you mentioned. In talking to some other older folks I heard that when development started going outwards of some of the cities, and with more formality in the farming, the open road hunting got way restricted. Especially around citrus groves.

In any Texana book you always seem to find pictures of opening dove season day in the RGV and it looks like the Clampetts slinging 12 gauges at alien invaders, it was a true momma, papa, sister, hunting club deal. What a neat thing to experience.

When we moved here there were always lots of hunters coming down for the two weekends of dove season in the Valley and then those going through to Mexico. Mexico hunting through the early 90's was a lot of fun as you could get the permit and liscense and do it yourself just over the river. Then they make it mandatory to have guide, special land based permits, and all kinds of other restrictions. This was done to make it only feasible to go through the big money hunting lodges that were springing up and in true fashion it was some well heeled and big money gringos that lobbied for this change as they were putting in lodges.

Some of the best times I had growing up were dove hunts on the saturdays after football games and saturday practice. Good or bad, the drinking age was still 18 and us kids were trusted enough to go out hunting on our own. We had some epic fun hunts.

Cuando??


Regular SeasonNorth Zone Sept. 1 - Nov. 12, 2019
Dec. 20, 2019 - Jan. 5, 2020

Central Zone Sept. 1 - Nov. 3, 2019
Dec. 20, 2019 - Jan. 14, 2020

South Zone Sept. 14 - Nov. 3, 2019
Dec. 20, 2019 - Jan. 23, 2020

Special White-winged Dove Days
South Zone Sept. 1 - 2, 2019
Sept. 7 - 8, 2019

September 1st.

Going to a Wedding opening weekend....hunting the second...can't wait.

Any Dove Reports?

My grandson went out both days, but I haven't talked to him. I'll ask the next time he calls for money!