Rain Heats Up Darden Dove Shoot

The annual gathering of the Darden Dove Shoot in Sharon, near Washington in Taliaferro, benefitting the SEEDS youth program, entered its 10th year under beautiful conditions. The well-prepared fields had been smiled on with excellent weather and timely showers through the growing season. 

Each field has its own powerline running the length of the field, and doves use these lines to rest and gather. The fields are oriented north and south and parallel a railroad bed just west of the fields. The train track is a great place for doves to find grit to help grind the seeds in their crop after the morning and evening feeding cycles. This is naturally a great place for a dove field. 

Happy people, happy hunters, happy retrievers—the ingredients of a traditional opening day dove shoot in the South. Darden shooters were greeted with a full BBQ spread catered by Fats Matt’s Rib Shack in Atlanta, and a great stand of millet. The doves were plentiful and challenging as ever. Here, Ron Hess presents host Claibourne Darden with a Civil War period powder horn replica.

The planting of the fields has become something of a community effort. Neighbors chip in both effort and money to make these fields as good as they can be made to be each year. Lime and fertilizer as not insignificant expenses when planting a field, particularly fields large enough to comfortably host more than 100 shooters. But this year, it was donated. A great deal of the tractor work was also donated by Palmer Equipment Co. of Washington. Owner Wade Palmer brought equipment down and ran it himself in prepping the fields and haying and harrowing to make the place attractive to doves as well as dove hunters. Round bales were strategically placed around the fields to keep hunters safe where the birds like to fly. 

A small collection of local sportsmen turned fire bugs watch the weather after the fields are hayed each August, picking the right day to come with their drip-torches and burn the stubble off the fields and expose more seed for the doves. They did a great job this year. Doves piled in. 

Sportsmen piled in from as far away as Charlotte and Tampa to enjoy the day’s activities. Folks begin gathering about  11 a.m. as they renewed friendships, bought raffle tickets for the donated shotgun to be awarded, and watched Fat Matt’s lay out a delicious spread of BBQ, Brunswick stew, cole slaw, with chips, cookies and tea, soft drinks and ice water to drink. After everyone had eaten their fill, we went around and everyone in attendance introduced themselves. It is a great tradition. Some young hunters had never been to a dove shoot before. One young lady who attended the dove shoot for the first time as a youngster some 10 years ago is now competing for a spot on the USA Olympic International skeet team. Go Samantha! 

Shooters took their positions about 3:30, and the doves flew average to pretty good until about 4 when a strong rain and lightning storm swamped the field. For about 40 minutes, there were no hunters or birds in the field. Some shooters eased on home to dry out and watch the ballgames. Those who stayed were treated to a great shoot from about 5 until 6:30 or so. It was the first time in a decade that rain had affected the hunt. Most thought the rain helped make the shoot better.