Vintage Hunting Photos: Texas White-Winged Dove Hunting Circa 1961

httpswww.fieldandstream.comsitesfieldandstream.comfilesimport2014importImage2012photo23LIFE_Dove_2.jpg

Hunters came from as far away as New York to shoot. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder and bumper-to-bumper.

httpswww.fieldandstream.comsitesfieldandstream.comfilesimport2014importImage2012photo23LIFE_Dove_3.jpg

Although there are lots of pictures in the gallery of women and men shooting, only women are shown plucking doves. In 1961, cleaning game was apparently still “woman’s work.”

httpswww.fieldandstream.comsitesfieldandstream.comfilesimport2014importImage2012photo23LIFE_Dove_4.jpg

Why switch to a tighter choke when you can climb closer to the doves on a stepladder instead? It makes perfect sense, sort of–except “higher up” is the last place you want to be when people are pointing shotguns in the air all around you.

httpswww.fieldandstream.comsitesfieldandstream.comfilesimport2014importImage2012photo23LIFE_Dove_5.jpg

It wasn’t total mayhem everyone on the firing line. Some people, like this guy, found spots of their own and looked at the hunt as a time to take it easy.

httpswww.fieldandstream.comsitesfieldandstream.comfilesimport2014importImage2012photo23LIFE_Dove_6.jpg

Correspondent David Nevin wrote, “[Photograper Ralph] Crane and I went flat several times as gun barrels swung in our direction.” This might be one of those times, as this woman looks dangerously close to toppling with her feet stuck in the mud as she twists to shoot. Fortunately, both men survived and brought this gallery back. Today we have it as a remarkable time capsule of the Texas hunting culture circa 1961.

Vintage Hunting Photos: Texas White-Winged Dove Hunting Circa 1961

MORE TO READ

How to Track and Hunt Elk in the Wilderness

Video: Ten-Year-Old First-Time Hunter Drops Two Deer with One Shot

West Coast Waterfowl Hunting is Hot—Literally