Darden Do-Over Dove Shoot One To Remember

The Saturday before Labor Day has always been opening day of dove season. This year was special. We had great weather and we really had the birds.  

Phil McCall said, “I have not seen that many birds in 30 years.”

Side-by-sides and buckets were full of limits at this year’s Darden Dove Shoot in Taliaferro County.

It was made even better by contrast to last year—a very, very poor shoot. 

But tons of birds is not the best thing about this year’s hunt. When the hunt last year failed, as weather and doves do from time to time, our shoot host, Claibourne Darden, and I decided that we needed a Do-Over. 

We needed to invite everyone from last year back free of charge to shoot this year, which we did. 

While some took advantage of this free Do-Over, many others did return but chose to pay for the shoot again this year anyway. 

So what do I have to report this year? Some years dove hunting is great, some years it isn’t. 

What was special about this season at this shoot was that the people on our hunt are constant and always good. 

Last year, on a poor shoot, I know we made our hunters proud of us for the way we decided to hold a free Do-Over. 

And this year, those same hunters made us proud of them for staying with us and continuing to support us and our program for SEEDS. 

So when we think about opening day of 2021, we’ll remember that we missed some friends because of COVID, and we will remember Matt Harper of Fat Matt’s Rib Shack in Atlanta, who always provides us a fine BBQ luncheon, and Darrell Roth, the General Manager of Palmer Equipment in Washington for always giving us water to deliver to our dove shooters in the field.

But we will also remember we had the most birds we have ever seen on that field, and we had another great traditional opening day shoot.