The 8th Annual White-Knight Dove Hunt gathering took place, as always, on Labor Day weekend in Salado and Temple Texas. Although there was not an "antiquing" as there has been in years past, it was still a very successful trip. (antiquing: the fine art of taking a hand full of baby powder and hurling it into the face of the sleeping victim. This ancient right of passage was one that many of the early cowboys did to there leaders. Unfortunately it died out as quickly as the cowboy did because the leaders often slept with six-shooters and little humor.)
This reporter has come to define success in many ways. If the success of the weekend is to be determined by how many dove we killed, then you could basically say that we were Duke Blue Devils' football team of dove hunting. No, the success of this weekend was determined by how many football games could be watched, beers consumed, and varmits de-varmited & extracted.

The greatest surprise of the weekend, was finding out how dedicated Mark "Chappy" Knight was to making an unsafe ride in the "gator", into an incredibly dangerous ride in the "gator". (See picture below) The time and effort that was put into welding this contraption, as well as assembling it was a feat that was similar to building the Eiffel Tower. Several other new additions to the weekend included an extremely bright light to shoot skeet at night, sunflowers (ha! ha!), Cock-a-Doodle Blue, and a craps table that was brought in by none other than one of the Carroll boys. The Cock-a-Doodle Blue, despite its warning that it may cause blindness, sweaty palms, baldness and liver failure, was really bad. I don't mean to say that it did not lack the punch that it was promised to deliver; it's just that consuming syrupy ooze with particles was not what I would be ordering if I was paying for it. CaDB did add a very special flavor to the weekend, and I am sure out brew-meister will be improving his stock for next year.
There was also a new addition to the hunt, Adam "Abdul" Tilley. I got to spend a few nights in Houston where he took me to hear Charlie Robinson and Jerry Jeff Walker's son. Adam has also introduced me to Pat Green, who is on the same level as Robert Earl Keen if you ask me. As for the skeet shooting this year we added a committee that was always being asked to review hits or misses by Mark Knight. The committee also acted as a staff photographer and thus should be recognized for their multiple talents.
As usually, North Carolina boys out shot the Texas crowd and took some money from the engineers of Austin. Though Richard Harris, brew-meister, did make a run at the title of "Shooter", he was quickly put in his place by a Remington 870 express.
There was a sad note that needs to be addressed besides the lack of dove; it was the K-9 side of things. Kelsey did a great job, though there were no doves to retrieve. Scott Tipton's dog Slap, trained under the strictest tutelage, did a great job of chasing minnows in the pond as well as dragon-flies. It was the absence of Gauge that marked a significant change in the hunt this year. Gauge is still around and disobeying Chappy like always, but he has been sent into retirement and was missed at this years hunt. Nothing is quite as memorable as the silhouette of Chappy whipping his dog with his hat for not obeying a single command.
I want to thank Webb and the Good Doctor for allowing such a fantastic weekend to happen out at there hunting ranch, the White's who still have no clue who I am after 7 years of attendance, and Chappy for introducing me to this gang of bad shots. Thanks to Jimmy "Kolache" for the calls on committee and the photographs. Richard Harris for the CaDB, and Grainger, for the successful extractions.